Categories: Lifestyle

Just like ‘Game of Thrones’: Scientists found the first Canadian fossil of a real-life dire wolf in Alberta

Photo via Game of Thrones / HBO

Game of Thrones is, and will always be, one of the greatest shows of all time and while all characters are memorable for one reason or another – few were more beloved than the dire wolves.

Loyal, fearless and cute as heck, the giant dog-like creatures were introduced in season 1 and fought alongside protagonists throughout the show – but now, we can officially say that actually called (the land now known as) Canada their home.

Recent Posts:
You can order a magical Harry Potter ‘holiday trunk’ in Canada this month & here’s how
A boozy wizard-themed mini-golf experience just opened in Calgary

Photo via Ashley Reynolds/Royal Ontario Museum/

This may come as a surprise to many, but the dire wolf (Canis dirus) is actually a very real animal that lived thousands of years ago during the ice age.

While this was known to scientists, Canada had yet to find a real-life fossil in Great North – until now.

Discovered in Medicine Hat, Alberta – a jagged and broken jaw bone with several intact teeth was found a while ago – but it wasn’t until this week that it was confirmed to have come from the XL pup.

A specimen that dates back between 25,000 and 50,000 years ago, scientists at the Royal Ontario Museum were able to use new technology to lock their suspicion in.

In addition to South America, the dire wolf also once thrived in Canada!

via GIPHY

“Geometric morphometrics were used to test the previous identification of the Medicine Hat dentary,” they wrote.

“A landmark-based principal component analysis and a canonical variates analysis suggests that the specimen more strongly resembles dire wolf specimens than grey wolf. Identification of the Medicine Hat specimen as C. dirus supports it as the northernmost occurrence of this species in North America.”

Pretty cool right?

For more information and to see the study in its entirety, you can visit the website here – otherwise, sleep well knowing that Canada is absolutely the Earth’s Winterfell. Try to convince us otherwise, we dare you.