Beringian wolf
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The Beringian wolf is an extinct
population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction usi ...
of wolf (''Canis lupus'') that lived during the
Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...
. It inhabited what is now modern-day
Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...
,
Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...
, and northern
British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...
. Some of these wolves survived well into the
Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
. The
Beringia Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72 degrees north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip ...
n wolf is an ecomorph of the gray wolf and has been comprehensively studied using a range of scientific techniques, yielding new information on the prey species and feeding behavior of prehistoric wolves. It has been determined that these wolves are morphologically distinct from modern North American wolves and genetically basal to most modern and extinct wolves. The Beringian wolf has not been assigned a subspecies classification and its relationship with the extinct European
cave wolf The cave wolf (''Canis lupus spelaeus'') is an extinct subspecies of wolf that lived during the Late Pleistocene Ice Age. It inhabited what is now modern-day western Europe. The Don wolf (''C. l. brevis'') from eastern Europe is regarded as a tax ...
(''Canis lupus spelaeus'') is not clear. The Beringian wolf was similar in size to the modern Alaskan Interior wolf (''Canis lupus pambasileus'') and other
Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of the Pleistocene Epoch withi ...
gray wolves but more robust and with stronger jaws and teeth, a broader
palate The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separ ...
, and larger
carnassial Carnassials are paired upper and lower teeth modified in such a way as to allow enlarged and often self-sharpening edges to pass by each other in a shearing manner. This adaptation is found in carnivorans, where the carnassials are the modified f ...
teeth relative to its skull size. In comparison with the Beringian wolf, the more southerly occurring
dire wolf The dire wolf (''Aenocyon dirus'' ) is an extinct canine. It is one of the most famous prehistoric carnivores in North America, along with its extinct competitor ''Smilodon''. The dire wolf lived in the Americas and eastern Asia during the Late ...
(''Aenocyon dirus'') was the same size but heavier and with a more robust skull and dentition. The unique adaptation of the skull and dentition of the Beringian wolf allowed it to produce relatively large bite forces, grapple with large struggling prey, and therefore made
predation Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...
and
scavenging Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding ...
on
Pleistocene megafauna Pleistocene megafauna is the set of large animals that lived on Earth during the Pleistocene epoch. Pleistocene megafauna became extinct during the Quaternary extinction event resulting in substantial changes to ecosystems globally. The role of ...
possible. The Beringian wolf preyed most often on horse and steppe bison, and also on caribou, mammoth, and woodland muskox. At the close of the Ice Age, with the loss of cold and dry conditions and the extinction of much of its prey, the Beringian wolf became extinct. The extinction of its prey has been attributed to the impact of
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
, competition with other species, including humans, or a combination of both factors. Local genetic populations were replaced by others from within the same
species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...
or of the same
genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
. Of the North American wolves, only the ancestor of the modern North American gray wolf survived. The remains of ancient wolves with similar skulls and dentition have been found in western Beringia (northeastern Siberia). In 2016 a study showed that some of the wolves now living in remote corners of China and Mongolia share a common maternal ancestor with one 28,000-year-old eastern Beringian wolf specimen.


Taxonomy

From the 1930s representatives of the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 int ...
worked with the Alaska College and the Fairbanks Exploration Company to collect specimens uncovered by hydraulic gold dredging near
Fairbanks Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the p ...
, Alaska. Childs Frick was a research associate in paleontology with the American Museum who had been working in the Fairbanks region. In 1930, he published an article which contained a list of "extinct Pleistocene mammals of Alaska-Yukon". This list included one specimen of what he believed to be a new subspecies which he named ''Aenocyon dirus alaskensis'' – the Alaskan dire wolf. The American museum referred to these as a typical Pleistocene species in Fairbanks. However, no type specimen, description nor exact location was provided, and because dire wolves had not been found this far north this name was later proposed as
nomen nudum In taxonomy, a ''nomen nudum'' ('naked name'; plural ''nomina nuda'') is a designation which looks exactly like a scientific name of an organism, and may have originally been intended to be one, but it has not been published with an adequate desc ...
(invalid) by the paleontologist Ronald M. Nowak. Between 1932 and 1953 twenty-eight wolf skulls were recovered from the Ester, Cripple, Engineer, and Little Eldorado creeks located north and west of Fairbanks. The skulls were thought to be 10,000 years old. The geologist and
paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
Theodore Galusha, who helped amass the Frick collections of fossil mammals at the American Museum of Natural History, worked on the wolf skulls over a number of years and noted that, compared with modern wolves, they were "short-faced". The paleontologist Stanley John Olsen continued Galusha's work with the short-faced wolf skulls, and in 1985, based on their morphology, he classified them as ''Canis lupus'' (
gray wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...
). Gray wolves were widely distributed across North American during both the Pleistocene and historic period. In 2007 Jennifer Leonard undertook a study based on the genetic, morphology, and stable isotope analyses of seventy-four Beringian wolf specimens from Alaska and the Yukon that revealed the genetic relationships, prey species, and feeding behavior of prehistoric wolves, and supported the classification of this wolf as ''C.lupus''. The specimens were not assigned a
subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...
classification by Leonard, who referred to these as "eastern Beringian wolves". A subspecies was possibly not assigned because the relationship between the Beringian wolf and the extinct European cave wolf (''C. l. spelaeus'') is not clear.
Beringia Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72 degrees north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip ...
was once an area of land that spanned the
Chukchi Sea Chukchi Sea ( rus, Чуко́тское мо́ре, r=Chukotskoye more, p=tɕʊˈkotskəjə ˈmorʲɪ), sometimes referred to as the Chuuk Sea, Chukotsk Sea or the Sea of Chukotsk, is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west ...
and the
Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Am ...
, joining Eurasia to North America. Eastern Beringia included what is today Alaska and the Yukon.


Lineage


Basal wolf

DNA sequences A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases signified by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. By convention, sequences are us ...
can be mapped to reveal a
phylogenetic tree A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...
that represents evolutionary relationships, with each branch point representing the divergence of two lineages from a common ancestor. On this tree the term basal is used to describe a lineage that forms a branch diverging nearest to the common ancestor. Wolf genetic sequencing has found the Beringian wolf to be basal to all other gray wolves except for the modern Indian gray wolf and Himalayan wolf. As of 2020, the oldest known intact wolf remains belongs to a mummified pup dated 56,000 YBP that was recovered from the permafrost along a small tributary of Last Chance Creek near
Dawson City Dawson City, officially the City of Dawson, is a town in the Canadian territory of Yukon. It is inseparably linked to the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–99). Its population was 1,577 as of the 2021 census, making it the second-largest town in Yuko ...
, Yukon, Canada. A DNA analysis showed that it belonged to the Beringian wolf
clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English ter ...
, that the
most recent common ancestor In biology and genetic genealogy, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA), also known as the last common ancestor (LCA) or concestor, of a set of organisms is the most recent individual from which all the organisms of the set are descended. The ...
of this clade dates to 86,700–67,500 YBP, and that this clade was basal to all other wolves except for the Himalayan wolf.


Different genetic types of gray wolf

A
haplotype A haplotype ( haploid genotype) is a group of alleles in an organism that are inherited together from a single parent. Many organisms contain genetic material ( DNA) which is inherited from two parents. Normally these organisms have their DNA o ...
is a group of
genes In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...
found in an organism that are inherited together from one of their parents. A
haplogroup A haplotype is a group of alleles in an organism that are inherited together from a single parent, and a haplogroup (haploid from the el, ἁπλοῦς, ''haploûs'', "onefold, simple" and en, group) is a group of similar haplotypes that share ...
is a group of similar haplotypes that share a single
mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, m ...
inherited from their common ancestor.
Mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial D ...
(mDNA) passes along the maternal line and can date back thousands of years. A 2005 study compared the mitochondrial
DNA sequences A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases signified by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. By convention, sequences are us ...
of modern wolves with those from thirty-four specimens dated between 1856 and 1915. The historic population was found to possess twice the
genetic diversity Genetic diversity is the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species, it ranges widely from the number of species to differences within species and can be attributed to the span of survival for a species. It is dis ...
of modern wolves, which suggests that the mDNA diversity of the wolves eradicated from the western US was more than twice that of the modern population. A 2007 study compared mDNA sequences of modern wolves with those from Beringian wolves. The twenty Beringian wolves yielded sixteen haplotypes that could not be found in modern wolves, compared with seven haplotypes that were found in thirty-two modern Alaskan and Yukon wolves. This finding indicates that Beringian wolves were genetically distinct from modern wolves and possessed greater genetic diversity, and that there once existed in North America a larger wolf population than today. Modern Alaskan wolves have not descended from the Beringian wolves but from Eurasian wolves which migrated into North America during the Holocene. A 2010 study compared mDNA sequences of modern wolves with those from 24 ancient wolf specimens from western Europe dated between 44,000 and 1,200
years before present Before Present (BP) years, or "years before present", is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Becaus ...
(YBP). The study found that the sequences could be allocated into two haplogroups. Haplogroups 1 and 2 could be found among wolves across Eurasia but only haplogroup1 could be found in North America. The ancient wolf samples from western Europe differed from modern wolves by 1 to 10 mutations, and all belonged to haplogroup2, indicating its predominance in this region for over 40,000 years, both before and after the
Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eu ...
. A comparison of current and past frequencies indicates that in Europe haplogroup2 became outnumbered by haplogroup1 over the past several thousand years, but in North America haplogroup2including the Beringian wolfbecame extinct and was replaced by haplogroup1 after the Last Glacial Maximum. However, a 2016 study did not support the existence of two wolf haplogroups. A scenario consistent with the phylogenetic, ice sheet size, and sea-level depth data is that during the Late Pleistocene the sea levels were at their lowest. A single wave of wolf colonization into North America commenced with the opening of the
Bering land bridge Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72 degrees north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip of ...
70,000YBP. It ended with the closing of the Yukon corridor that ran along the division between the
Laurentide Ice Sheet The Laurentide Ice Sheet was a massive sheet of ice that covered millions of square miles, including most of Canada and a large portion of the Northern United States, multiple times during the Quaternary glacial epochs, from 2.58 million year ...
and the Cordilleran Ice Sheet 23,000YBP during the Late Glacial Maximum. As wolves had been in the fossil record of North America but the genetic ancestry of modern wolves could be traced back only 80,000 years, the wolf haplotypes that were already in North America were replaced by these invaders, either through competitive displacement or through genetic admixture. The replacement in North America of a basal population of wolves by a more recent one is consistent with the findings of earlier studies. The Beringian wolves are morphologically and genetically comparable to Late Pleistocene European wolves. One study found that ancient wolves across Eurasia had a mDNA sequence identical to six Beringian wolves (indicating a common maternal ancestor). These wolves included a wolf from the Nerubajskoe-4 Paleolithic site, near
Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
, Ukraine, dated 30,000YBP, a wolf from the Zaskalnaya-9 Paleolithic site, in Zaskalnaya on the
Crimean Peninsula Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
, dated 28,000YBP, and the "Altai dog" from the
Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob have their headwaters. The massif merges with the ...
of Central Asia dated 33,000YBP. Another wolf from the Vypustek cave,
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
, dated 44,000YBP had a mDNA sequence identical to two Beringian wolves (indicating another common maternal ancestor). The Beringian wolves are phylogenetically associated with a distinct group of four modern European mDNA haplotypes, which indicates that both ancient and extant North American wolves originated in Eurasia. Of these four modern haplotypes, one was only found in the
Italian wolf The Italian wolf (''Canis lupus italicus'' or ''Canis lupus lupus''), also known as the Apennine wolf, is a subspecies of the grey wolf native to the Italian Peninsula. It inhabits the Apennine Mountains and the Western Alps, though it is und ...
and one only found among wolves in Romania. These four haplotypes fall, along with those of the Beringian wolves, under mDNA haplogroup2. Ancient specimens of wolves with similar skull and dentition have been found in western Beringia (northeast Siberia), the Taimyr Peninsula, the
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...
, and Germany, where the European specimens are classified as ''Canis lupus spelaeus''the cave wolf. The Beringian wolves, and perhaps wolves across the mammoth steppe, were adapted to preying on now-extinct species through their unique skull and tooth morphology. This type of gray wolf that is adapted for preying on megafauna has been referred to as the Megafaunal wolf. It is possible that a
panmictic Panmixia (or panmixis) means random mating. A panmictic population is one where all individuals are potential partners. This assumes that there are no mating restrictions, neither genetic nor behavioural, upon the population and that therefore all ...
(random mating) wolf population, with
gene flow In population genetics, gene flow (also known as gene migration or geneflow and allele flow) is the transfer of genetic material from one population to another. If the rate of gene flow is high enough, then two populations will have equivalent a ...
spanning Eurasia and North America, existed until the closing of the ice sheets, after which the southern wolves became isolated, and only the Beringian wolf existed north of the sheets. The land bridge became inundated by the sea 10,000YBP, and the ice sheets receded 12,000–6,000YBP. The Beringian wolf became extinct, and the southern wolves expanded through the shrinking ice sheets to recolonize the northern part of North America. All North American wolves are descended from those that were once isolated south of the ice sheets. However, much of their diversity was later lost during the twentieth century due to eradication.


Description

Olsen described the short-faced wolf skulls as follows: The Beringian wolf was similar in size to the modern Alaskan Interior wolf (''C.l.pambasileus''). The largest northern wolves today have a shoulder height not exceeding and a body length not exceeding . The average weight of the Yukon wolf is for males and for females. Individual weights for Yukon wolves can vary from to , with one Yukon wolf weighing . The Beringian wolves were also similar in size to the Late Pleistocene wolves whose remains have been found in the
La Brea Tar Pits La Brea Tar Pits is an active paleontological research site in urban Los Angeles. Hancock Park was formed around a group of tar pits where natural asphalt (also called asphaltum, bitumen, or pitch; ''brea'' in Spanish) has seeped up from the gr ...
at
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
, California. These wolves, referred to as Rancho LaBrea wolves (''Canis lupus''), were not physically different from modern gray wolves, the only differences being a broader
femur The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates ...
bone and a longer
tibial tuberosity The tuberosity of the tibia or tibial tuberosity or tibial tubercle is an elevation on the proximal, anterior aspect of the tibia, just below where the anterior surfaces of the lateral and medial tibial condyles end. Structure The tuberosity o ...
the insertion for the
quadriceps The quadriceps femoris muscle (, also called the quadriceps extensor, quadriceps or quads) is a large muscle group that includes the four prevailing muscles on the front of the thigh. It is the sole extensor muscle of the knee, forming a large ...
and
hamstring muscles In human anatomy, a hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in between the hip and the knee (from medial to lateral: semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris). The hamstrings are susceptible to injury. In quadrupeds, ...
indicating that they had comparatively more powerful leg muscles for a fast take-off before a chase. The Beringian wolf was more robust, and possessed stronger jaws and teeth, than either Rancho LaBrea or modern wolves. During the Late Pleistocene, the more southerly occurring
dire wolf The dire wolf (''Aenocyon dirus'' ) is an extinct canine. It is one of the most famous prehistoric carnivores in North America, along with its extinct competitor ''Smilodon''. The dire wolf lived in the Americas and eastern Asia during the Late ...
(''Canis dirus'') had the same shape and proportions as the Yukon wolf, but the dire wolf subspecies ''C.dirusguildayi'' is estimated to have weighed on average , and the subspecies ''C.dirusdirus'' on average , with some specimens being larger. The dire wolf was heavier than the Beringian wolf and possessed a more robust skull and dentition.


Adaptation

Adaptation In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...
is the evolutionary process by which an organism becomes better able to live in its environment. The genetic differences between wolf populations is tightly associated with their type of habitat, and wolves disperse primarily within the type of habitat that they were born into. Ecological factors such as habitat type, climate, prey specialization, and predatory competition have been shown to greatly influence gray wolf craniodental plasticity, which is an adaptation of the
cranium The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...
and teeth due to the influences of the environment. In the Late Pleistocene the variations between local environments would have encouraged a range of wolf
ecotypes In evolutionary ecology, an ecotype,Greek: ''οίκος'' = home and ''τύπος'' = type, coined by Göte Turesson in 1922 sometimes called ecospecies, describes a genetically distinct geographic variety, population, or race within a species, ...
that were genetically, morphologically, and ecologically distinct from each another. The term ecomorph is used to describes a recognizable association of the morphology of an organism or a species with their use of the environment. The Beringian wolf ecomorph shows evolutionary craniodental plasticity not seen in past nor present North American gray wolves, and was well-adapted to the megafauna-rich environment of the Late Pleistocene.


Paleoecology

The last glacial period, commonly referred to as the "Ice Age", spanned 125,000–14,500YBP and was the most recent
glacial period A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betwe ...
within the current ice age, which occurred during the last years of the Pleistocene era. The Ice Age reached its peak during the Last Glacial Maximum, when
ice sheet In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the Last Glacial Period at La ...
s began advancing 33,000YBP and reached their maximum limits 26,500YBP. Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere approximately 19,000YBP and in Antarctica approximately 14,500YBP, which is consistent with evidence that glacial meltwater was the primary source for an abrupt rise in sea level 14,500YBP and the Bering land bridge was finally inundated around 11,000YBP. The fossil evidence from many continents points to the
extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the Endling, last individual of the species, although the Functional ext ...
of large animals, termed
Pleistocene megafauna Pleistocene megafauna is the set of large animals that lived on Earth during the Pleistocene epoch. Pleistocene megafauna became extinct during the Quaternary extinction event resulting in substantial changes to ecosystems globally. The role of ...
, near the end of the last glaciation. During the Ice Age a vast, cold and dry
mammoth steppe During the Last Glacial Maximum, the mammoth steppe, also known as steppe-tundra, was the Earth's most extensive biome. It spanned from Spain eastward across Eurasia to Canada and from the arctic islands southward to China. The mammoth step ...
stretched from the Arctic islands southwards to China, and from Spain eastwards across Eurasia and over the Bering land bridge into Alaska and the Yukon, where it was blocked by the
Wisconsin glaciation The Wisconsin Glacial Episode, also called the Wisconsin glaciation, was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex. This advance included the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which nucleated in the northern North American Cord ...
. The land bridge existed because sea levels were lower due to more of the planet's water being locked up in glaciers compared with today. Therefore, the flora and fauna of Beringia were more related to those of Eurasia rather than to those of North America. In eastern Beringia from 35,000 YBP the northern Arctic areas experienced temperatures 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) warmer than today, but the southern sub-Arctic regions were 2 °C (3.5 °F) cooler. In 22,000YBP, during the Last Glacial Maximum, the average summer temperature was 3–5 °C (5.4–9 °F) cooler than today, with variations of 2.9 °C (5.2 °F) cooler on the
Seward Peninsula The Seward Peninsula is a large peninsula on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska whose westernmost point is Cape Prince of Wales. The peninsula projects about into the Bering Sea between Norton Sound, the Bering Strait, the Chukchi ...
to 7.5 °C (13.5 °F) cooler in the Yukon. Beringia received more moisture and intermittent maritime cloud cover from the north Pacific Ocean than the rest of the Mammoth steppe, including the dry environments on either side of it. Moisture occurred along a north–south gradient with the south receiving the most cloud cover and moisture due to the airflow from the North Pacific. This moisture supported a shrub-
tundra In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...
habitat that provided an ecological refugium for plants and animals. In this Beringian refugium, eastern Beringia's vegetation included isolated pockets of
larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains fur ...
and
spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfam ...
forests with
birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' cont ...
and
alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...
trees. This environment supported large
herbivores A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...
that were prey for Beringian wolves and their competitors.
Steppe bison The steppe bisonSeveral literatures address the species as ''primeval bison''. or steppe wisent (''Bison'' ''priscus'')
– Y ...
(''Bison priscus''),
Yukon horse ''Equus lambei'', commonly known as the Yukon horse or Yukon wild horse, is an extinct species of the genus '' Equus''. ''Equus lambei'' ranged across North America until approximately 10,000 years ago. Based on recent examinations of the mtD ...
(''Equus lambei''),
woolly mammoth The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with '' Mammuthus s ...
(''Mammuthus primigenius''), and
Wild yak The wild yak (''Bos mutus'') is a large, wild bovine native to the Himalayas. It is the ancestor of the domestic yak (''Bos grunniens''). Taxonomy The ancestor of the wild and domestic yak is thought to have diverged from '' Bos primigeniu ...
(''Bos mutus'') consumed grasses, sedges, and herbaceous plants.
Caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...
(''Rangifer tarandus'') and woodland muskox (''Symbos cavifrons'') consumed tundra plants, including lichen, fungi, and mosses.


Prey

Isotope analysis Isotope analysis is the identification of isotopic signature, abundance of certain stable isotopes of chemical elements within organic and inorganic compounds. Isotopic analysis can be used to understand the flow of energy through a food w ...
can be used to allow researchers to make inferences about the diet of the species being studied. Two isotope analyses of bone
collagen Collagen () is the main structural protein in the extracellular matrix found in the body's various connective tissues. As the main component of connective tissue, it is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up from 25% to 35% of the whol ...
extracted from the remains of Late Pleistocene wolves found in Beringia and Belgium indicate that wolves from both areas preyed mainly on Pleistocene megafauna, which became rare at the beginning of the Holocene 12,000 years ago. The Beringian wolf preyed most often on horse and steppe bison. In the period leading up to the Last Glacial Maximum (50,000YBP–23,000YBP), they also ate woodland muskox, and after this time they also ate mammoth. The analysis supports the conclusion that these wolves were capable of killing and dismembering large prey. In another stable isotope analysis, half of the Beringian wolves were found to be muskox and caribou specialists, and the other half were either horse and bison specialists or generalists. Two wolves from the full-glacial period (23,000–18,000 YBP) were found to be mammoth specialists, but it is not clear if this was due to scavenging or predation. The analysis of other carnivore fossils from the Fairbanks region of Alaska found that mammoth was rare in the diets of the other Beringian carnivores. A stable isotope analysis of a mummified Beringian wolf pup dated 56,000 YBP that was recovered near the Klondike river revealed that most of its diet - and therefore its mother's diet - was based on aquatic rather than animal resources. The aquatic resources was proposed to be salmon.


Dentition

A 2007 study of ''Canis'' dentition shows that in comparison with the modern gray wolf and the Pleistocene LaBrea wolf, the Beringian wolf possessed large carnassial teeth and a short, broad
palate The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separ ...
relative to the size of its skull. The row length of the Beringian wolf's
premolars The premolars, also called premolar teeth, or bicuspids, are transitional teeth located between the canine and molar teeth. In humans, there are two premolars per quadrant in the permanent set of teeth, making eight premolars total in the mouth ...
was longer, the P4 premolar (the upper carnassial) longer and wider, and the M1, M2, and m1 (the lower carnassial)
molars The molars or molar teeth are large, flat teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammals. They are used primarily to grind food during chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, ''molaris dens'', meaning "millstone to ...
longer than those found in the other two types of wolves. The Beringian wolf's short, broad rostrum increased the force of a bite made with the canine teeth while strengthening the skull against the stresses caused by struggling prey. Today, the relatively deep jaws similar to those of the Beringian wolf can be found in the bone-cracking
spotted hyena The spotted hyena (''Crocuta crocuta''), also known as the laughing hyena, is a hyena species, currently classed as the sole extant member of the genus ''Crocuta'', native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as being of least concern by the IUC ...
and in those canids that are adapted for taking large prey. Beringian wolves possessed a craniodental morphology that was more specialized than modern gray wolves and Rancho LaBrea wolves for capturing, dismembering, and consuming the bones of very large megaherbivores, having evolved this way due to the presence of megafauna. Their stronger jaws and teeth indicate a hypercarnivorous lifestyle. An accepted sign of domestication is the presence of tooth crowding, in which the orientation and alignment of the teeth are described as touching, overlapping or being rotated. However, a 2017 study found that 18% of Beringian wolf specimens exhibit tooth crowding compared with 9% for modern wolves and 5% for domestic dogs. These specimens predate the arrival of humans and therefore there is no possibility of cross-breeding with dogs. The study indicates that tooth crowding can be a natural occurrence in some wolf ecomorphs and cannot be used to differentiate ancient wolves from early dogs.


Tooth breakage

Tooth breakage is related to a carnivore's behavior. The mandibles of canids are buttressed behind the carnassial teeth to enable them to crack bones with their post-carnassial teeth (molars M2 and M3). A study found that the modern gray wolf possesses greater buttressing when compared to all other extant canids and the extinct dire wolf. This indicates that the gray wolf is better adapted for cracking bone than other canids. In comparison to extant North American gray wolves, Beringian wolves included many more individuals with moderately to heavily worn teeth and with a significantly greater number of broken teeth. The frequencies of fracture in wolves ranged from a minimum of 2% found in the
Northern Rocky Mountain wolf The northern Rocky Mountain wolf (''Canis lupus irremotus''), also known as the northern Rocky Mountain timber wolf, is a subspecies of gray wolf native to the northern Rocky Mountains. It is a light-colored, medium to large-sized subspecies wit ...
''(Canis lupus irremotus)'' up to a maximum of 11% found in Beringian wolves. The distribution of fractures across the tooth row also differs, with Beringian wolves having much higher frequencies of fracture for
incisors Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, wher ...
, carnassials, and molars. A similar pattern was observed in spotted hyenas, suggesting that increased incisor and carnassial fracture reflects habitual bone consumption because bones are gnawed with the incisors and then cracked with the carnassials and molars. The risk of tooth fracture is also higher when taking and consuming large prey.


Competitors

In addition to the Beringian wolf, other Beringian carnivores included the Eurasian cave lion (''Panthera spelaea''), scimitar-toothed cat (''Homotherium serum)'',
giant short-faced bear The Tremarctinae or short-faced bears is a subfamily of Ursidae that contains one living representative, the spectacled bear (''Tremarctos ornatus'') of South America, and several extinct species from four genera: the Florida spectacled bear (' ...
(''Arctodus simus''), and the omnivorous
brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is k ...
(''Ursus arctos''). Beringian wolves would have faced competition for the carcasses of large herbivores from the formidable giant short-faced bear, a scavenger. Additionally, humans had reached the Bluefish Caves in the Yukon Territory by 24,000YBP, with cutmarks being found there on specimens of Yukon horse, steppe bison,
caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...
(''Rangifer tarandus''),
wapiti The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The commo ...
(''Cervus canadensis''), and Dall sheep (''Ovis dalli''). A 1993 study proposed that the higher frequency of tooth breakage among Pleistocene carnivores compared with living carnivores was not the result of hunting larger game, something that might be assumed from the larger size of the former. When there is low prey availability, the competition between carnivores increases, causing them to eat faster and consume more bone, leading to tooth breakage. Compared to modern wolves, the high frequency of tooth fracture in Beringian wolves indicates higher carcass consumption due to higher carnivore density and increased competition. This proposal was challenged in 2019, when a survey of modern wolf behavior over the past 30 years showed that when there was less prey available, the rates of tooth fracture more than doubled. This suggests that large Pleistocene carnivores experienced more periods of limited food availability when compared with their modern counterparts.


Range

The remains of Beringian wolves have been found in Alaska and as far eastward as the
Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...
in Canada. Specimens that have been identified by their skull morphology and limb morphology to be Beringian wolves have been found in the
Natural Trap Cave Natural Trap Cave is a pit cave in the Bighorn Mountains, in northern Wyoming, United States. Excavations in the cave are an important source of paleontological information on the North American Late Pleistocene, due to a rich layer of fossils fr ...
at the base of the
Bighorn Mountains The Bighorn Mountains ( cro, Basawaxaawúua, lit=our mountains or cro, Iisaxpúatahchee Isawaxaawúua, label=none, lit=bighorn sheep's mountains) are a mountain range in northern Wyoming and southern Montana in the United States, forming a ...
in Wyoming, United States. These were radiocarbon dated to between 25,800 and 14,300YBP, and this location is directly south of what would at that time have been the division between the Laurentide Ice Sheet and the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. This suggests that a temporary channel existed between the glaciers from 25,800YBP until the advance of the ice sheets 16,000–13,000YBP. The migration of the Beringian wolf southwards is assumed to have been the result of pursuing prey species, as this cave also contained specimens of steppe bison that had migrated from Beringia and would have been prey for wolves, and muskox that is known to be an important prey species of the Beringian wolf. Dire wolves were absent north of 42°N latitude in the Late Pleistocene; therefore, this region would have been available for Beringian wolves to expand southwards. There is no evidence of expansion beyond this region.


Extinction

Extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the Endling, last individual of the species, although the Functional ext ...
is the result of the elimination of the geographic range of a species with a reduction of its population size down to zero. The factors that affect biogeographic range and population size include competition, predator-prey interactions, variables of the physical environment, and chance events.


Phenotype is extinct

A
phenotype In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology (biology), morphology or physical form and structure, its Developmental biology, developmental proc ...
is any observable and measurable characteristic of an
organism In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells ( cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and fu ...
and includes any morphological, behavioral, and physiological traits, with these characteristics being influenced by genes and the environment. The mammoth steppe lasted for 100,000 years without change until it came to an end around 12,000 years ago. The American megafaunal extinction event occurred 12,700YBP when 90genera of mammals weighing over became extinct. The extinction of the large carnivores and scavengers is thought to have been caused by the extinction of the megaherbivore prey upon which they depended. The cause of the extinction of this megafauna is debated but has been attributed to the impact of
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
,
competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, ind ...
with other species, including humans, or a combination of both factors. For those mammals with modern representatives, ancient DNA and radiocarbon data indicate that the local genetic populations were replaced by others from within the same species or by others of the same genus. Postglacial environmental change throughout eastern Beringia brought about wholesale changes in vegetation, the regional extinction of much of the megafauna, and the entrance of ''
Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture ...
''. The large Late Pleistocene carnivores that were more carnivorous than their competitors faced greater vulnerability to extinction. The Beringian cave lion, saber-toothed cat, and short-faced bear went extinct at the same time as their large megafaunal prey. The
omnivorous An omnivore () is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nut ...
coyote,
American black bear The American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), also called simply a black bear or sometimes a baribal, is a medium-sized bear endemic to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. American black bear ...
, brown bear, puma and
bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the ...
survived. Both the Beringian wolf and the dire wolf went extinct in North America, leaving only the less carnivorous and more gracile form of the wolf to thrive. One extinction theory holds that the Beringian wolf was outcompeted and replaced by the ancestor of the modern gray wolf. The radiocarbon dating of the skeletal remains from 56 Beringian wolves showed a continuous population from over 50,800 YBP until 12,500YBP, followed by one wolf dated at 7,600YBP. This indicates that their population was in decline after 12,500YBP, although megafaunal prey was still available in this region until 10,500YBP. The timing of this latter specimen is supported by the recovery of mammoth and horse DNA from sediments dated 10,500 YBP–7,600 YBP from the interior of Alaska, and steppe bison dated 5,400 YBP from the Yukon. The timing for the extinction of horses in North America and the minimum population size for North American bison coincide with the extinction of an entire wolf haplogroup in North America, indicating that the disappearance of their prey caused the extinction of this wolf ecomorph. This resulted in a significant loss of phenotypic and genetic diversity within the species.


Haplotype is not extinct

There are parts of Central Eurasia where the environment is considered to be stable over the past 40,000 years. In 2016 a study compared mDNA sequences of ancient wolf specimens with those from modern wolves, including specimens from the remote regions of North America, Russia, and China. One ancient haplotype that had once existed in both Alaska (Eastern Beringia 28,000YBP) and Russia (Medvezya "Bear" Cave, Pechora area, Northern
Urals The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
18,000YBP) was shared by modern wolves found living in Mongolia and China (indicating a common maternal ancestor). The study found that the genetic diversity of past wolves was lost at the beginning of the Holocene in Alaska, Siberia, and Europe, and that there is limited overlap with modern wolves. The study did not support two wolf haplogroups that had been proposed by earlier studies. For the ancient wolves of North America, instead of an extinction/replacement model indicated by other studies, this study found substantial evidence of a
population bottleneck A population bottleneck or genetic bottleneck is a sharp reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events such as famines, earthquakes, floods, fires, disease, and droughts; or human activities such as specicide, widespread violen ...
(reduction) in which the ancient wolf diversity was almost lost at the beginning of the Holocene. In Eurasia, the loss of many ancient lineages cannot be simply explained and appears to have been slow across time with reasons unclear.


Descendants

In 2021, an mDNA analysis of modern and extinct North American wolf-like canines indicates that the Beringian wolf was the ancestor of the southern wolf clade, which includes the Mexican wolf and the extinct Great Plains wolf. The Mexican wolf is the most ancestral of the gray wolves that live in North America today. The modern coyote appeared around 10,000 years ago. The most genetically basal coyote mDNA clade pre-dates the Late Glacial Maximum and is a haplotype that can only be found in the Eastern wolf. This implies that the large, wolf-like Pleistocene coyote was the ancestor of the Eastern wolf. Further, another ancient haplotype detected in the Eastern wolf can be found only in the Mexican wolf. The study proposes that Pleistocene coyote and Beringian wolf admixture led to the Eastern wolf long before the arrival of the modern coyote and the modern wolf.


Notes


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External links


Beringian wolf mandible
dated 31,700 YBP showing large, sharp lower carnassial – Museum of the North, University of Alaska (Arctos database)
Beringian wolf mandible
dated 31,700 YBP – other side view of the specimen above
Beringian Research Notes – Ancient Northern Wolves
Government of the Yukon
Ice Age Mammals of the Yukon
Government of the Yukon Wolves Pleistocene carnivorans Prehistoric canines Prehistoric mammals of North America Extinct animals of the United States Extinct animals of Canada