Cave wolf

Extinct Ice-Age European subspecies of wolf

The cave wolf is an extinct glacial mammoth steppe-adapted white wolf that lived during the Middle Pleistocene to the Late Pleistocene. It inhabited Europe, where its remains have been found in many caves. Its habitat included the mammoth steppe grasslands and boreal needle forests. This large wolf was short-legged compared to its body size, yet its leg size is comparable with that of the Arctic wolf C. l. arctos. Genetic evidence suggests that Late Pleistocene European wolves shared high genetic connectivity with contemporary wolves from Siberia, with continual gene flow from Siberian wolves into European wolves over the course of the Late Pleistocene. Modern European wolves derive most of their ancestry from Siberian wolf populations that expanded into Europe during and after the Last Glacial Maximum, but retain a minor fraction of their ancestry from earlier Late Pleistocene European wolves.

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