Canis lupus

The wolf, also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though grey wolves, as popularly understood, include only naturally occurring wild subspecies. The wolf is the largest wild extant member of the family Canidae, and is further distinguished from other Canis species by its less pointed ears and muzzle, as well as a shorter torso and a longer tail. The wolf is nonetheless related closely enough to smaller Canis species, such as the coyote and the golden jackal, to produce fertile hybrids with them. The wolf's fur is usually mottled white, brown, grey, and black, although subspecies in the arctic region may be nearly all white.

Canis lupus

User:Mas3cf · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
gray wolfPBDB
Sits inside
CanisPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Canidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 2.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 2 of 126 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 112 of 126 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 12 of 126 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.3–2.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.2–2.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.0–1.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.9–1.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.8–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.6–1.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.5–1.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.4–1.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.2–1.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.1–957 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence957 ka–820 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences137 ka–0 Mya — about 68 occurrences2.58 Mya11.7 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

126 occurrences of Canis lupus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

126 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

5 formations

Chapala — 20.30°N, 103.20°WCromer Forest Bed — 52.46°N, 1.73°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°EFloral — 50.80°N, 103.90°WKairubak suite — 38.35°N, 69.97°EGuxiangtun — 45.92°N, 127.40°E

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The named rock units Canis lupus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 119 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Canis lupus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Canis lupus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,284 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 125 sites for Canis lupus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

81 references

Each of the 126 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 69 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Canis lupus

Credit
User:Mas3cf
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Canis lupus · msu:mr:36390

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCanis through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758