Cave wolf
The cave wolf (Canis lupus spelaeus) 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. Mitochondrial DNA analysis shows it to be more closely related to the domestic dog than the modern wolf, indicating possible ancestry.
| Cave wolf | |
|---|---|
| The Goldfuss holotype, Berlin's Natural History Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Canidae |
| Genus: | Canis |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | †C. l. spelaeus |
| Trinomial name | |
| †Canis lupus spelaeus Goldfuss, 1823 | |
| Synonyms | |
|
C. l. brevis Kuzmina and Sablin, 1994 | |
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