However, most people know that many of his scenes can appear frightening by theft. game of Thrones, He did not extract spring directly from George RR Martin’s mind. In fact, scientists have known the longest extinct creature since the mid-19th century.
Until recently, it was widely believed that the fierce wolf (Canis deres) Was essentially a more muscular relative of the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus), Partly because their skeletons look similar. But a new study published in Nature It is revealed that the two species share much less than their appearances.
It all started when archaeologist Angela Perry of Durham University in Britain set out on an expedition to North America to locate fierce wolf fossils from the museum’s collection and see if she could extract DNA from them. His effort was successful: as National Geographic Reports, Perry and his colleagues were able to sequence the genome from five grave wolf fossils from Idaho, Ohio, Tennessee and Wyoming. These remains range from 50,000 years ago to about 13,000 years ago (around the time of the death of the dense wolves).
After comparing severe wolf orders to severe wolves and many other candles, researchers found that dense wolves and gray wolves genetically deviated from their common ancestor about 5.7 million years ago. As scientific American Explains, their morphological similarity appears to be an example of convergent evolution; In other words, they developed similar traits because they had similar lifestyles, not because their DNA was similar.
Based on these findings, it is possible that nomadic wolves spent millions of years developing in the Americas – separated from gray wolves back in Eurasia. In that case, it could also be the final migration of other species – even humans – towards the steer dare extinction.
“The question now becomes: whether their extinction is related to climate and environmental change, or whether humans and potentially other wolves and dogs [diseases] Helpful to push them out? Perry told National Geographic.
The study may also affect the scientific classification of nomadic wolf. With a weak genetic link Canis Genus, it may need to be transferred to its genus. But even if that happens, there’s a good chance we’ll still call them “sinister wolves” in casual conversations – like we do with koala bears, electric eels, and other animals with deceptive monikers.
[h/t Scientific American]
.