UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 



GEOLOGY 



Vol. 10, No. 27, pp. 531-533 April 20, 1918 



NOTE ON THE SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF THE 

 WOLVES OF THE CANIS DIRUS GROUP 1 



BY 



' JOHN C. MERKIAM 



In a study of the Pleistocene canid fauna of Rancho La Brea the 

 writer had occasion some years ago to consider division of the wolf 

 group into several subgenera. The principal evidence favoring split- 

 ting of the group was found in the wide difference between the dire 

 wolf, Canis dims, and all other representatives of the Canidae in 

 North America. The only circumstance which prevented setting the 

 wolves of the C. dirus group aside as a distinct genus or subgenus 

 was the lack of such differentiation within this group as is to be ex- 

 pected in a generic division showing as wide a geographic range as 

 that of the C. dirus forms. The suggestion was made that differen- 

 tiation comparable to that characteristic of a genus was perhaps 

 offered by the presence in the Rancho La Brea fauna of a second 

 species of the C. dints group, namely Canis millcri. The milleri form 

 was described as a distinct species having characters approximating 

 more closely to those of C. dirus than to the characters of the timber 

 wolves of the C. occidentalis group. 



Subdivision of the Canis group of America has already been pro- 

 posed by other authors who would separate such distinct groups as 

 the timber wolves and coyotes. Regardless of the question as to gen- 

 eric or subgeneric rank of these divisions, there seems to the writer 

 no question concerning the necessity of this grouping in order to ex- 

 press the relationsbips and history of these forms. 



The writer's view concerning the generic distinction of the wolves 

 of the C. dirus group has received substantial confirmation through 



1 Reail at eighth annual meeting of the Pacific Section of the Paleontologieal 

 Society, Stanford University, April 6, 1917. 



