page_title: Megafaunal wolf
section_title: Diet
hierarchical_section_title: Megafaunal wolf / Diet
caption_attribution_description: English: Carnassials of a dog (male mongrel, 9 months old). The inside of the 4th upper premolar aligns with the outside of the 1st lower molar, working like scissor blades on food. Deutsch: Reißzähne eines Hundes (Mischlingsrüde, 9 Monate alt). Die Innenseite des 4. oberen Prämolaren fluchtet mit der Außenseite des 1. unteren Molaren und bildet eine Schere zum Zerkleinern von Nahrung.
context_page_description: The megafaunal wolf was a Late Pleistocene – early Holocene hypercarnivore similar in size to a large extant gray wolf. It had a shorter, broader palate with large carnassial teeth relative to its overall skull size. This adaptation allowed it to prey and scavenge on Pleistocene megafauna. Such an adaptation is an example of phenotypic plasticity. It was once distributed across the northern Holarctic.
context_section_description: Isotopic bone collagen analysis of the specimens indicated that they ate horse, bison, woodland muskox, and mammoth — i.e., Pleistocene megafauna. This supports the conclusion that they were capable of killing and dismembering large prey. Compared with Pleistocene and extant gray wolves, the megafaunal wolf was hypercarnivorous, with a craniodental morphology more capable of capturing, dismembering, and consuming the bones of very large mega-herbivores. When their prey disappeared, this wolf did as well, resulting in a significant loss of phenotypic and genetic diversity within the species.
caption: Location of a dog's carnassials; the inside of the 4th upper premolar aligns with the outside of the 1st lower molar, working like scissor blades
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.", "Image Model": "E-M1", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.8.6", "Image DateTime": "2014:03:27 17:05:18", "Image Artist": "", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "972", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1738", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 37, 0, 1, 0, 20, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:03:27 15:52:28", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:03:27 15:52:28", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "8", "EXIF FocalLength": "40", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2400", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1708", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}