Armbruster's Wolf Temporal range: Early Pleistocene–Late Pleistocene |
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Conservation status | |
Fossil
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Family: | Canidae |
Genus: | Canis |
Species: | †C. armbrusteri |
Binomial name | |
†Canis armbrusteri J. W. Gidley, 1913 |
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Range of Armbruster's Wolf based on fossil distribution |
Armbruster's Wolf (Canis armbrusteri) is an extinct species of canid which was endemic to North America and lived during the Irvingtonian stage of the Pleistocene epoch 1.8 Mya—300,000 years ago, existing for approximately 1.5 million years.[1].
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Canis armbrusteri is the oldest member of lupus and may have evolved from C. chihliensis in Asia (Tedford, Wang, 182). C. armbrusteri first appears in the Early Pleistocene (Irvingtonian) in the southwestern United States. Remains are often found within the rock strata containing Mammoth. It was displaced in the middle section of the continent by the Dire Wolf (C. dirus) with C. armbrusteri pushed eastward until the Late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean stage) in Florida. [2]
Canis armbrusteri did not give rise to C. dirus (Dire Wolf). The evolutionary origin of C. dirus is unknown but it may be a descendent of the South American C. nehringi.
Canis armbrusteri was named by J. W. Gidley in 1913. The first fossils were uncovered at Cumberland Cave, Maryland which in an Irvingtonian terrestrial horizon. Fossil distribution is widespread throughout the U.S.[3].
Armbruster's Wolf was generally larger and heavier than its older and longer living cousin, Canis lupus. Fossil records and current data show it was as much as 15 kg (33 lb) heavier.[4]
A specimen was estimated by Legendre and Roth to weigh 63.1 kg (140 lb) and another specimen was estimated to weigh 54.4 kg (120 lb).[5]
Armbruster's Wolf' is considered a sister species of the Dire Wolf, one of the most recent evolutionary relatives of the modern wolf, differing from the Gray Wolf and Dire Wolf by a narrower skull. It is considered to be the closest relative to Canis falconeri.
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