Dire Wolf

[Jdeutsch]

I was reading on wolves, and was surprised to find that the Dire wolf was one of the most common species found in the La Brea tar pits. It seems to me that predators should be 1% of prey.

How common are Dire wolf finds in North America (relative to Mammoths or ungulates, for instance) and are there localities where they turn up more often outside of Los Angeles? (e.g. Florida, Nebraska etc?)

[Auspex]

The tar pits were a predator trap; something would get stuck, and predators would come to scavenge (it took a long while for big things to sink out of site) and get stuck too.

[siteseer]

Dire wolf finds (generally isolated teeth or jaw sections of Late Pleistocene age) are very uncommon - more in line with that 1% figure.

Back in the 90's there was a site in the Palos Verdes, California area where a collector found numerous Bison teeth but only a few dire wolf teeth. There is a documented find of several individuals in a sinkhole in southern Dade County, Florida (Cutler Hammock site) noted in the book, "The Fossil Vertebrates of Florida."..

I was reading on wolves, and was surprised to find that the Dire wolf was one of the most common species found in the La Brea tar pits. It seems to me that predators should be 1% of prey.

How common are Dire wolf finds in North America (relative to Mammoths or ungulates, for instance) and are there localities where they turn up more often outside of Los Angeles? (e.g. Florida, Nebraska etc?)

[DE&i]

This is an interesting post its possible I may find Dire wolf bone on my next field trip to Pode-hole , Spalding, Lincolnshire, UK...how can that be.

Darren.

Edited June 1, 2013 by D&E