Dire Wolves were real -- and their genome has been sequenced!

 

An article in the New York Times last week summarizes results from the first genomic sequencing of dire wolves, recently published in Nature.

The most interesting findings are: (1) they are not as previously assumed a sister species of wolves, but instead represent a deep - now extinct - canid lineage; and (2) unlike other candids, they didn't seem to interbreed with other taxa... which might have contributed to their extinction?

No dragon genomes yet.