New fossil skeleton of extinct wolf recently mounted in the American Museum. More than a thousand 

 complete skulls and a proportionate number of skeleton bones have been disinterred in the asphalt beds at Rancho 

 La Brea 



the largest known recent wolves. Other 

 individuals are considerably smaller than 

 some of the large northern wolves of the 

 present day. The skull is especially 

 large, and the head seems to have been 

 relatively large compared with the limbs. 

 The teeth are very massive, but those 

 regions of the cheek-tooth dentition con- 

 structed especially for crushing are rela- 

 tively small. The comparatively light 

 limbs and very massive head show that 

 the animal was not as well developed for 

 running as are the timber wolves and coy- 

 otes. The massiveness of the dentition, 

 without corresponding development of 

 the crushing surface, indicates use of 

 the teeth in smashing large bones. The 

 form of the skull indicates that the 

 head was normally held low and was 

 often used in hard pulling and hauling 

 of heavy bodies. The great number of 

 individuals of Canis dims found at 

 Rancho La Brea, suggests that the 

 wolves of this species sometimes associ- 

 ated themselves in packs and that groups 

 of considerable size may have assembled 

 to kill isolated ungulates and edentates. 



Particularly the young of the large ani- 

 mals, the aged and injured, when they 

 could be separated from their associates, 

 would be the natural prey of the great 

 wolf, but adults in normal strength may 

 also have succumbed to the combined 

 attack of several of these powerful 

 animals." Dr. Merriam gives the length 

 of one of the largest skulls as 282 milli- 

 metres (lljg inches). 



The skeleton shown in the photograph 

 is that of an unusually large animal, 

 and was presented in exchange by the 

 University of California. It has been 

 mounted by Mr. Adam Hermann, the 

 pose selected being a characteristic 

 phase of the trot. A trotting mastiff 

 in the Muy bridge photographs of A7ii- 

 mals in Motion served as guide. This is 

 the step that would commonly be used 

 in a long chase. It suggests the grim, 

 unrelenting, tireless pursuit of its prey, 

 seen far away across the bare rocky hills 

 of Southern California, and affords an 

 interesting contrast to the pose of the 

 skeleton in the "Asphalt Group", which 

 stands excited, hesitant, feet wide apart. 



