Dire Wolf Information
Dire Wolf Discovery
Dire Wolf Hunting
Dire Wolf Fossils
La Brea Tar Pits
Dire Wolf Extinction
Dire Wolf Pictures
Dire Wolf Discovery
The first Dire Wolf fossil was found in Evansville, Indiana during the summer of 1854 when the Ohio river was notoriously low. The Ohio River averaged at least eleven feet lower than today. The fossil was found Near Pigeon Creek and only a shorts walk away from downtown Evansville, Indian. While walking down the Ohio River Linck found the specimen on the river bed. The fossil specimen was just a miniscule fossilized jawbone, Francis A Linck found the orginal fossil. Dr. Joseph Granville Norwood was at the time the first state geologist of Illinois, he located and acquired the fossil specimen from Francis A. Linck. Dr. Norwood then sent the specimen to Joseph Leidy at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Dr. Leidy confirmed that the fractures jaw bone Dire Wolf fossil represented an ancient extinct species of wolf, he later published a note announcing this discovery in November 1854. In a publication dated 1858, Leidy first assigned the name of Canis primaveus to this ancient fossilized extinct wolf but later realized that the name “primavus” was already used, so he renamed it to Canis dirus
Still today the letters that Dr. Norwood sent to Dr. Leidy, as well as the actual jawbone fossil specimen itself are preserved intact at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, although one of the last letters indicates that the specimen should be returned to Linck’s family, as Linck died later in August of 1854.
Who knows, if Linck had never taken that walk down Pigeon Creek on that hot summer August day, maybe we would have never discovered the Dire Wolf. Although it is unlikely since we have over two thousand fossil specimens in the La Bear tar pits alone.