Daily Celestial challenge : AnimalKindom

#celestialchallenge created by @sirknight,in today’s theme “AnimalKingdom”, I will be writing about an amazing wonder of nature......hope you enjoy it.......

[Source] (https://www.newdinosaurs.com/1017_dire-wolf_canis-simensis/)

THE DIRE WOLF
And yes.... It really exists...its not just a fictional character in my favorite series of all time .... Or will i say existed... Cos its extinct now...

[Source] (https://pixabay.com/photo-1247882/)

The dire wolf (Canis Dirus or fearsome dog) is an extinct specie of the genus Canis. One of the most famous prehistoric carnivores in North America. The wolf lived in the Americas during the late pleistocene epoch (125,000-10,000 years ago). It was named in 1858...4 years after the first specimen had been found. The dire wolves were almost about the same size as the largest modern day gray wolves. It weighed about 68kg.... Actually weighs more than me.... Damn. It its teeth were larger with greater shearing strength and bite force at the canine tooth was the strongest of any known canine specie. It preyed on horses, camels, mastadons e.t.c. its extinction occurred during the quentenary extinction event along with most of the american megafauna. Its reliance on megaherbivores has been proposed as the cause of its extinction, along with climatic change and competition with other species, but the causes remain controversial

[Source] (https://pixabay.com/photo-708258/)

FUN FACTS
**weighed half as much as a panda bear.
**They not only had to compete with gray
wolves, but also with sabre tooth tigers.
**Their bite force not only sliced flesh, but
broke. bones so they could get to the marrow
**Dire wolves are hypercarnivores
** 30% bigger than modern day biggest dogs
** They can be de-extinct.....with a program called DE-EXTINCTION, it may be possible to bring the dire wolf back to life, presumably by combining DNA in museum specimen with the genome of modern day dogs....