Wikipedia:Today's featured article/December 1, 2017
The Beringian wolf (a subspecies of Canis lupus) lived during the last Ice Age in what is now Alaska, the Yukon, and northern Wyoming. The wolf was more robust, with stronger jaws and teeth, than other Late Pleistocene gray wolves and the comparably sized modern Yukon wolf (Canis lupus pambasileus), but not as strong as the dire wolf. 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 to predate and scavenge on Pleistocene megafauna. The wolf has been comprehensively studied, yielding new information on the prey species and feeding behavior of prehistoric wolves. The Beringian wolf preyed most often on horse and steppe bison, and also on caribou, mammoth, and woodland musk ox. The species survived well into the Holocene before its extinction at the close of the Ice Age, when cold and dry conditions abated and much of its prey also went extinct. The remains of ancient wolves with similar skulls and dentition have been found in western Beringia (north-east Siberia). (Full article...)