The dire wolf, or canis dirus is only one of the many large animal species or "megafauna" that became extinct in North America about 11,500 years ago. One long-held belief popularly communicated, with a number of scientific adherents, is that the megafauna died out because they were hunted out of existence by the amazing Clovis people.
The dire wolf was slightly larger than today's timber wolf, with shorter legs and a more powerful jaw. Its teeth are noticably larger than the wolves of today, and it also had proportionately, a slightly smaller braincase. It's difficult to understand how hunter-gathering people could have selectively "wiped out" the dire wolf, and not the "regular" or timber wolf.
Interestingly, scientists have discovered a "black mat" comprised primarily of dead vegetation and algae that marks the extinction "barrier" in North America ca 10,900 YA. The mat is currently being studied by C. Vance Haynes at the University of Arizona, Tucson and others. Dr. Haynes first published a survey and preliminary analysis of the "black mat" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2008.
Dr. Haynes wrote, "This layer or mat covers the Clovis-age landscape or surface on which the last remnants of the terminal Pleistocene megafauna are recorded. Stratigraphically and chronologically the extinction appears to have been catastrophic, seemingly too sudden and extensive for either human predation or climate change to have been the primary cause."
Dr. Haynes believes there is a possibility of an extraterrestrial extinction event (meteor, comet or "other") that may have led to the sudden, drastic changes in the numbers, types of and distribution of large animals in North America - the "event" seems to have taken place during a less-than 100 year period. And interestingly to the "human hunters killed all the big animals" hypothesis, the "black mat" (and previously, logic) should put paid to that theory. The amazing Clovis hunters do not appear above the black mat any more than dire wolves and woolly mammoths do.
Another word for the extinction event is "rancholabrean," which refers to the world-famous and ever-so-smelly La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles. The tar pits are adjacent to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) on Wilshire Blvd. This is a very nice area full of art galleries, parks, nice apartments and housing, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of well-preserved bones of creatures living right up to the extinction event and beyond. Many people might not know that, not so long ago, especially in geologic terms, there was an American camel, and a species of horse that became extinct, with horses only returning to North America when brought by European explorers in the 16th century. Other less well-known extinct megafauna include an American lion, which is morphologically very similar to the African lion of today, and the short-faced bear, a whopping animal larger than both polar bears and grizzlies. Many people have probably heard of the giant ground sloth, which stood 9 feet tall and weighed up to 3,500 pounds. There are also many animals that still exist today found in the La Brea tar pits, including the gray fox, timber wolf, coyote, a larger version of the American bison, and armadillos and peccaries.
The connection between the arrival of the Clovis people in North America and the sudden mass extinction of many large animals, was automatically assumed to be "cause and effect." The hunters quickly "hunted out" these large animals, causing a mass extinction event. This hypothesis is easily disproved by showing how large and numerous animal extinctions are not closely tied to human predation in other environments -- notably, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Europe, and the Middle East.
It is equally, and perhaps more valid to investigate the possibility that climate change enabled the Clovis people to cross into North America, and continued climate change or a sudden natural/"extraterrestrial" disaster led to the destruction of many animal species, particularly the larger ones. As the climate changed, the Clovis people fell prey to the same problem that the "megafauna" had -- whatever it may have been. One would think that it would have been instantly evident to the scientists, and others, who have been so convinced that the Clovis hunters entered north America only to immediately slaughter every large animal, that other large animals survived very successfully - animals very similar to those that did go extinct: like the dire wolf.
