title: Heaven

text: The God of the Israelites is described as ruling both Heaven and Earth. Other passages, such as 1 Kings 8:27 state that even the vastness of Heaven cannot contain God's majesty. A number of passages throughout the Hebrew Bible indicate that Heaven and Earth will one day come to an end. This view is paralleled in other ancient Near Eastern cultures, which also regarded Heaven and Earth as vulnerable and subject to dissolution. However, the Hebrew Bible differs from other ancient Near Eastern cultures in that it portrays the God of Israel as independent of creation and unthreatened by its potential destruction. Because most of the Hebrew Bible concerns the God of Israel's relationship with his people, most of the events described in it take place on Earth, not in Heaven. The Deuteronomistic source, Deuteronomistic History, and Priestly source all portray the Temple in Jerusalem as the sole channel of communication between Earth and Heaven.


title: Heaven

text: During the period of the Second Temple ( 515 BC – 70 AD), the Hebrew people lived under the rule of first the Persian Achaemenid Empire, then the Greek kingdoms of the Diadochi, and finally the Roman Empire. Their culture was profoundly influenced by those of the peoples who ruled them. Consequently, their views on existence after death were profoundly shaped by the ideas of the Persians, Greeks, and Romans. The idea of the immortality of the soul is derived from Greek philosophy and the idea of the resurrection of the dead is thought to be derived from Persian cosmology, although the later claim has been recently questioned. By the early first century AD, these two seemingly incompatible ideas were often conflated by Hebrew thinkers. The Hebrews also inherited from the Persians, Greeks, and Romans the idea that the human soul originates in the divine realm and seeks to return there. The idea that a human soul belongs in Heaven and that Earth is merely a temporary abode in which the soul is tested to prove its worthiness became increasingly popular during the Hellenistic period (323 – 31 BC). Gradually, some Hebrews began to adopt the idea of Heaven as the eternal home of the righteous dead.


title: Heaven

text: Descriptions of Heaven in the New Testament are more fully developed than those in the Old Testament, but are still generally vague. As in the Old Testament, in the New Testament God is described as the ruler of Heaven and Earth, but his power over the Earth is challenged by Satan. The Gospels of Mark and Luke speak of the "Kingdom of God" (; ), while the Gospel of Matthew more commonly uses the term "Kingdom of heaven" (; ). Both phrases are thought to have the same meaning, but the author of the Gospel of Matthew changed the name "Kingdom of God" to "Kingdom of Heaven" in most instances because it was the more acceptable phrase in his own cultural and religious context in the late first century.


title: Heaven

text: Modern scholars agree that the Kingdom of God was an essential part of the teachings of the historical Jesus. In spite of this, none of the gospels ever record Jesus as having explained exactly what the phrase "Kingdom of God" means. The most likely explanation for this apparent omission is that the Kingdom of God was a commonly understood concept that required no explanation. Jews in Judea during the early first century believed that God reigns eternally in Heaven, but many also believed that God would eventually establish his kingdom on earth as well. This belief is referenced in the first petition of the Lord's Prayer, taught by Jesus to his disciples and recorded in both Matthew and Luke 11:2: "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."


title: Heaven

text: Because God's Kingdom was believed to be superior to any human kingdom, this meant that God would necessarily drive out the Romans, who ruled Judea, and establish his own direct rule over the Jewish people. In the teachings of the historical Jesus, people are expected to prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of God by living moral lives. Jesus's commands for his followers to adopt lifestyles of moral perfectionism are found in many passages throughout the Synoptic Gospels, particularly in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5–7. Jesus also taught that, in the Kingdom of Heaven, there would be a reversal of roles in which "the last will be first and the first will be last." This teaching recurs throughout the recorded teachings of Jesus, including in the admonition to be like a child, the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16, the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard in Matthew 20, the Parable of the Great Banquet in Matthew 22, and the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15.


title: Heaven

text: Traditionally, Christianity has taught that Heaven is the location of the throne of God as well as the holy angels, although this is in varying degrees considered metaphorical. In traditional Christianity, it is considered a state or condition of existence (rather than a particular place somewhere in the cosmos) of the supreme fulfillment of theosis in the beatific vision of the Godhead. In most forms of Christianity, Heaven is also understood as the abode for the redeemed dead in the afterlife, usually a temporary stage before the resurrection of the dead and the saints' return to the New Earth.


title: Heaven

text: The resurrected Jesus is said to have ascended to Heaven where he now sits at the Right Hand of God and will return to Earth in the Second Coming. Various people have been said to have entered Heaven while still alive, including Enoch, Elijah and Jesus himself, after his resurrection. According to Roman Catholic teaching, Mary, mother of Jesus, is also said to have been assumed into Heaven and is titled the Queen of Heaven.


title: Heaven

text: In the second century AD, Irenaeus of Lyons recorded a belief that, in accordance with John 14, those who in the afterlife see the Saviour are in different mansions, some dwelling in the heavens, others in paradise and others in "the city".


title: Heaven

text: While the word used in all these writings, in particular the New Testament Greek word οὐρανός ("ouranos"), applies primarily to the sky, it is also used metaphorically of the dwelling place of God and the blessed. Similarly, though the English word "heaven" still keeps its original physical meaning when used, for instance, in allusions to the stars as "lights shining through from heaven", and in phrases such as heavenly body to mean an astronomical object, the heaven or happiness that Christianity looks forward to is, according to Pope John Paul II, "neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but a living, personal relationship with the Holy Trinity. It is our meeting with the Father which takes place in the risen Christ through the communion of the Holy Spirit."


title: Heaven

text: While the concept of Heaven ("malkuth hashamaim" מלכות השמים, the Kingdom of Heaven) is much discussed in Christian thought, the Jewish concept of the afterlife, sometimes known as "olam haba", the World-to-come, is not discussed so often. The Torah has little to say on the subject of survival after death, but by the time of the rabbis two ideas had made inroads among the Jews: one, which is probably derived from Greek thought, is that of the immortal soul which returns to its creator after death; the other, which is thought to be of Persian origin, is that of resurrection of the dead.


title: Heaven

text: Jewish writings refer to a "new earth" as the abode of mankind following the resurrection of the dead. Originally, the two ideas of immortality and resurrection were different but in rabbinic thought they are combined: the soul departs from the body at death but is returned to it at the resurrection. This idea is linked to another rabbinic teaching, that men's good and bad actions are rewarded and punished not in this life but after death, whether immediately or at the subsequent resurrection. Around 1 CE, the Pharisees are said to have maintained belief in resurrection but the Sadducees are said to have denied it (Matt. 22:23).


title: Heaven

text: The Mishnah has many sayings about the World to Come, for example, "Rabbi Yaakov said: This world is like a lobby before the World to Come; prepare yourself in the lobby so that you may enter the banquet hall."


title: Heaven

text: According to Nicholas de Lange, Judaism offers no clear teaching about the destiny which lies in wait for the individual after death and its attitude to life after death has been expressed as follows: "For the future is inscrutable, and the accepted sources of knowledge, whether experience, or reason, or revelation, offer no clear guidance about what is to come. The only certainty is that each man must die – beyond that we can only guess."


title: Heaven

text: According to Tracey R. Rich of the website "Judaism 101", Judaism, unlike other world-religions, is not focused on the quest of getting into heaven but on life and how to live it.


title: Heaven

text: Similar to Jewish traditions such as the Talmud, the Qur'an and Hadith frequently mention the existence of seven "samāwāt" (سماوات), the plural of "samāʾ" (سماء), meaning 'heaven, sky, celestial sphere', and cognate with Hebrew "shamāyim" (שמים). Some of the verses in the Qur'an mentioning the "samaawat" are 41:12, 65:12 and 71:15. Sidrat al-Muntaha, a large enigmatic Lote tree, marks the end of the seventh heaven and the utmost extremity for all of God's creatures and heavenly knowledge.


title: Heaven

text: One interpretation of "heavens" is that all the stars and galaxies (including the Milky Way) are all part of the "first heaven", and "beyond that six still bigger worlds are there," which have yet to be discovered by scientists.


title: Heaven

text: Still an afterlife destination of the righteous is conceived in Islam as "Jannah" ( "Garden [of Eden]" translated as "paradise"). Regarding Eden or paradise the Quran says, "The parable of the Garden which the righteous are promised: Beneath it flow rivers; perpetual is the fruits thereof and the shade therein. Such is the end of the righteous; and the end of the unbelievers is the Hellfire." Islam rejects the concept of original sin, and Muslims believe that all human beings are born pure. Children automatically go to paradise when they die, regardless of the religion of their parents.


title: Heaven

text: Paradise is described primarily in physical terms as a place where every wish is immediately fulfilled when asked. Islamic texts describe immortal life in Jannah as happy, without negative emotions. Those who dwell in Jannah are said to wear costly apparel, partake in exquisite banquets, and recline on couches inlaid with gold or precious stones. Inhabitants will rejoice in the company of their parents, spouses, and children. In Islam if one's good deeds outweigh one's sins then one may gain entrance to paradise. Conversely, if one's sins outweigh their good deeds they are sent to hell. The more good deeds one has performed the higher the level of Jannah one is directed to.


title: Heaven

text: The Quran refer to Jannah with different names: "Al-Firdaws", "Jannātu-′Adn" ("Garden of Eden" or "Everlasting Gardens"), "Jannatu-n-Na'īm" ("Garden of Delight"), "Jannatu-l-Ma'wa" ("Garden of Refuge"), "Dāru-s-Salām" ("Abode of Peace"), "Dāru-l-Muqāma" ("Abode of Permanent Stay"), "al-Muqāmu-l-Amin" ("The Secure Station") and "Jannātu-l-Khuld" ("Garden of Immortality"). In the Hadiths, these are the different regions in paradise.


title: Heaven

text: According to the Ahmadiyya view, much of the imagery presented in the Quran regarding Heaven, but also Hell, is in fact metaphorical. They propound the verse which describes, according to them, how the life to come after death is very different from the life here on Earth. The "Quran" says: "From bringing in your place others like you, and from developing you into a form which at present you know not." According to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of Ahmadiyya sect in Islam, the soul will give birth to another rarer entity and will resemble the life on this earth in the sense that this entity will bear a similar relationship to the soul, as the soul bears relationship with the human existence on earth. On earth, if a person leads a righteous life and submits to the will of God, his or her tastes become attuned to enjoying spiritual pleasures as opposed to carnal desires. With this, an "embryonic soul" begins to take shape. Different tastes are said to be born in which a person given to carnal passions finds no enjoyment. For example, sacrifice of one's own's rights over that of other's becomes enjoyable, or that forgiveness becomes second nature. In such a state a person finds contentment and Peace at heart and at this stage, according to Ahmadiyya beliefs, it can be said that a soul within the soul has begun to take shape.


title: Heaven

text: The Baháʼí Faith regards the conventional description of heaven (and hell) as a specific place as symbolic. The Baháʼí writings describe heaven as a "spiritual condition" where closeness to God is defined as heaven; conversely hell is seen as a state of remoteness from God. Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, has stated that the nature of the life of the soul in the afterlife is beyond comprehension in the physical plane, but has stated that the soul will retain its consciousness and individuality and remember its physical life; the soul will be able to recognize other souls and communicate with them.


title: Heaven

text: For Baháʼís, entry into the next life has the potential to bring great joy. Bahá'u'lláh likened death to the process of birth. He explains: "The world beyond is as different from this world as this world is different from that of the child while still in the womb of its mother." The analogy to the womb in many ways summarizes the Baháʼí view of earthly existence: just as the womb constitutes an important place for a person's initial physical development, the physical world provides for the development of the individual soul. Accordingly, Baháʼís view life as a preparatory stage, where one can develop and perfect those qualities which will be needed in the next life. The key to spiritual progress is to follow the path outlined by the current Manifestation of God, which Baháʼís believe is currently Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'u'lláh wrote, "Know thou, of a truth, that if the soul of man hath walked in the ways of God, it will, assuredly return and be gathered to the glory of the Beloved."


title: Heaven

text: The Baháʼí teachings state that there exists a hierarchy of souls in the afterlife, where the merits of each soul determines their place in the hierarchy, and that souls lower in the hierarchy cannot completely understand the station of those above. Each soul can continue to progress in the afterlife, but the soul's development is not entirely dependent on its own conscious efforts, the nature of which we are not aware, but also augmented by the grace of God, the prayers of others, and good deeds performed by others on Earth in the name of that person.


title: Heaven

text: Mandaeans believe in an afterlife or heaven called "Alma d-Nhura" (World of Light). The World of Light is the primeval, transcendent world from which Tibil and the World of Darkness emerged. The Great Living God ("Hayyi Rabbi") and his uthras (angels or guardians) dwell in the World of Light. The World of Light is also the source of Piriawis, the Great "Yardena" (or Jordan River) of Life.


title: Heaven

text: The cosmological description of the universe in the Gnostic codex On the Origin of the World presents seven heavens created by the lesser god or Demiurge called Yaldabaoth, which are individually ruled over by one of his Archons. Above these realms is the eighth heaven, where the benevolent, higher divinities dwell. During the end of days, the seven heavens of the Archons will collapse on each other. The heaven of Yaldabaoth will split in two and cause the stars in his celestial sphere to fall.


title: Heaven

text: In the native Chinese Confucian traditions, heaven (Tian) is an important concept, where the ancestors reside and from which emperors drew their mandate to rule in their dynastic propaganda, for example.


title: Heaven

text: Heaven is a key concept in Chinese mythology, philosophies, and religions, and is on one end of the spectrum a synonym of "Shangdi" ("Supreme Deity") and on the other naturalistic end, a synonym for nature and the sky. The Chinese term for "heaven", "Tian" (天), derives from the name of the supreme deity of the Zhou dynasty. After their conquest of the Shang dynasty in 1122 BC, the Zhou people considered their supreme deity "Tian" to be identical with the Shang supreme deity "Shangdi". The Zhou people attributed Heaven with anthropomorphic attributes, evidenced in the etymology of the Chinese character for heaven or sky, which originally depicted a person with a large cranium. Heaven is said to see, hear and watch over all men. Heaven is affected by man's doings, and having personality, is happy and angry with them. Heaven blesses those who please it and sends calamities upon those who offend it. Heaven was also believed to transcend all other spirits and gods, with Confucius asserting, "He who offends against Heaven has none to whom he can pray."


title: Heaven

text: Other philosophers born around the time of Confucius such as Mozi took an even more theistic view of heaven, believing that heaven is the divine ruler, just as the Son of Heaven (the King of Zhou) is the earthly ruler. Mozi believed that spirits and minor gods exist, but their function is merely to carry out the will of heaven, watching for evil-doers and punishing them. Thus they function


title: Heaven

text: as angels of heaven and do not detract from its monotheistic government of the world. With such a high monotheism, it is not surprising that Mohism championed a concept called "universal love" ("jian'ai", 兼愛), which taught that heaven loves all people equally and that each person should similarly love all human beings without distinguishing between his own relatives and those of others. In Mozi's "Will of Heaven" (天志), he writes:


title: Heaven

text: Mozi criticized the Confucians of his own time for not following the teachings of Confucius. By the time of the later Han dynasty, however, under the influence of Xunzi, the Chinese concept of heaven and Confucianism itself had become mostly naturalistic, though some Confucians argued that Heaven was where ancestors reside. Worship of heaven in China continued with the erection of shrines, the last and greatest being the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, and the offering of prayers. The ruler of China in every Chinese dynasty would perform annual sacrificial rituals to heaven, usually by slaughtering two healthy bulls as a sacrifice.


title: Heaven

text: In Buddhism there are several heavens, all of which are still part of "samsara" (illusionary reality). Those who accumulate good karma may be reborn in one of them. However, their stay in heaven is not eternal—eventually they will use up their good karma and will undergo rebirth into another realm, as a human, animal or other beings. Because heaven is temporary and part of "samsara", Buddhists focus more on escaping the cycle of rebirth and reaching enlightenment ("nirvana"). Nirvana is not a heaven but a mental state.


title: Heaven

text: According to Buddhist cosmology the universe is impermanent and beings transmigrate through several existential "planes" in which this human world is only one "realm" or "path". These are traditionally envisioned as a vertical continuum with the heavens existing above the human realm, and the realms of the animals, hungry ghosts and hell beings existing beneath it. According to Jan Chozen Bays in her book, "Jizo: Guardian of Children, Travelers, and Other Voyagers", the realm of the "asura" is a later refinement of the heavenly realm and was inserted between the human realm and the heavens. One important Buddhist heaven is the "Trāyastriṃśa", which resembles Olympus of Greek mythology.


title: Heaven

text: In the Mahayana world view, there are also pure lands which lie outside this continuum and are created by the Buddhas upon attaining enlightenment. Rebirth in the pure land of Amitabha is seen as an assurance of Buddhahood, for once reborn there, beings do not fall back into cyclical existence unless they choose to do so to save other beings, the goal of Buddhism being the obtainment of enlightenment and freeing oneself and others from the birth-death cycle.


title: Heaven

text: The Tibetan word "Bardo" means literally "intermediate state". In Sanskrit the concept has the name "antarabhāva".


title: Heaven

text: After developing the four Brahmavihāras, King Makhādeva rebirths here after death. The monk Tissa and Brāhmana Jānussoni were also reborn here.


title: Heaven

text: The heaven of devas "with power over (others') creations". These devas do not create pleasing forms that they desire for themselves, but their desires are fulfilled by the acts of other devas who wish for their favor. The ruler of this world is called Vaśavartin (Pāli: Vasavatti), who has longer life, greater beauty, more power and happiness and more delightful sense-objects than the other devas of his world. This world is also the home of the devaputra (being of a divine race) called Māra, who endeavors to keep all beings of the Kāmadhātu in the grip of sensual pleasures. Māra is also sometimes called Vaśavartin, but in general these two dwellers in this world are kept distinct. The beings of this world are tall and live for 9,216,000,000 years (Sarvāstivāda tradition).


title: Heaven

text: The world of devas "delighting in their creations". The devas of this world are capable of making any appearance to please themselves. The lord of this world is called Sunirmita (Pāli Sunimmita); his wife is the rebirth of Visākhā, formerly the chief upāsikā (female lay devotee) of the Buddha. The beings of this world are tall and live for 2,304,000,000 years (Sarvāstivāda tradition).


title: Heaven

text: The world of the "joyful" devas. This world is best known for being the world in which a Bodhisattva lives before being reborn in the world of humans. Until a few thousand years ago, the Bodhisattva of this world was Śvetaketu (Pāli: Setaketu), who was reborn as Siddhārtha, who would become the Buddha Śākyamuni; since then the Bodhisattva has been Nātha (or Nāthadeva) who will be reborn as Ajita and will become the Buddha Maitreya (Pāli Metteyya). While this Bodhisattva is the foremost of the dwellers in , the ruler of this world is another deva called (Pāli: Santusita). The beings of this world are tall and live for 576,000,000 years (Sarvāstivāda tradition). Anāthapindika, a Kosālan householder and benefactor to the Buddha's order was reborn here.


title: Heaven

text: Ajita the Licchavi army general was reborn here. Gopika the Sākyan girl was reborn as a male god in this realm.


title: Heaven

text: Any Buddhist reborn in this realm can outshine any of the previously dwelling denizens because of the extra merit acquired for following the Buddha's teachings.


title: Heaven

text: The heaven "of the Four Great Kings". Its rulers are the four Great Kings of the name, , , , and their leader . The devas who guide the Sun and Moon are also considered part of this world, as are the retinues of the four kings, composed of (dwarfs), Gandharva गन्धर्वs (fairies), Nāgas (snakes) and (goblins). The beings of this world are tall and live for 9,000,000 years (Sarvāstivāda tradition) or 90,000 years (Vibhajyavāda tradition).


title: Heaven

text: Ou Yi Zhixu explains that the Shurangama sutra only emphasizes avoidance of deviant sexual desire, but one would naturally need to abide by the 10 good conducts to be born in these heavens.


title: Heaven

text: Attaining heaven is not the final pursuit in Hinduism as heaven itself is ephemeral and related to physical body. Only being tied by the bhoot-tatvas, heaven cannot be perfect either and is just another name for pleasurable and mundane material life. According to Hindu cosmology, above the earthly plane, are other planes: (1) Bhuva Loka, (2) Swarga Loka, meaning Good Kingdom, is the general name for heaven in Hinduism, a heavenly paradise of pleasure, where most of the Hindu Devatas (Deva) reside along with the king of Devas, Indra, and beatified mortals. Some other planes are Mahar Loka, Jana Loka, Tapa Loka and Satya Loka. Since heavenly abodes are also tied to the cycle of birth and death, any dweller of heaven or hell will again be recycled to a different plane and in a different form per the karma and "maya" i.e. the illusion of Samsara. This cycle is broken only by self-realization by the Jivatma. This self-realization is Moksha (Turiya, Kaivalya).


title: Heaven

text: The concept of moksha is unique to Hinduism. Moksha stands for liberation from the cycle of birth and death and final communion with Brahman. With moksha, a liberated soul attains the stature and oneness with Brahman or Paramatma. Different schools such as Vedanta, Mimansa, Sankhya, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, and Yoga offer subtle differences in the concept of Brahman, obvious Universe, its genesis and regular destruction, Jivatma, Nature (Prakriti) and also the right way in attaining perfect bliss or moksha.


title: Heaven

text: In the Vaishnava traditions the highest heaven is Vaikuntha, which exists above the six heavenly lokas and outside of the mahat-tattva or mundane world. It's where eternally liberated souls who have attained moksha reside in eternal sublime beauty with Lakshmi and Narayana (a manifestation of Vishnu).


title: Heaven

text: In the Nasadiya Sukta, the heavens/sky Vyoman is mentioned as a place from which an overseeing entity surveys what has been created. However, the Nasadiya Sukta questions the omniscience of this overseer.


title: Heaven

text: The shape of the Universe as described in Jainism is shown alongside. Unlike the current convention of using North direction as the top of map, this uses South as the top. The shape is similar to a part of human form standing upright.


title: Heaven

text: The "Deva Loka" (heavens) are at the symbolic "chest", where all souls enjoying the positive karmic effects reside. The heavenly beings are referred to as "devas" (masculine form) and "devis" (feminine form). According to Jainism, there is not one heavenly abode, but several layers to reward appropriately the souls of varying degree of karmic merits. Similarly, beneath the "waist" are the "Narka Loka" (hell). Human, animal, insect, plant and microscopic life forms reside on the middle.


title: Heaven

text: The pure souls (who reached Siddha status) reside at the very south end (top) of the Universe. They are referred to in Tamil literature as தென்புலத்தார் (Kural 43).


title: Heaven

text: Sikhs believe that heaven and hell are also both in this world where everyone reaps the fruit of karma. They refer to good and evil stages of life respectively and can be lived now and here during our life on Earth. Bhagat Kabir in the "Guru Granth Sahib" rejects the otherworldly heaven and says that one can experience heaven on this Earth through the company of holy people.


title: Heaven

text: The Nahua people such as the Aztecs, Chichimecs and the Toltecs believed that the heavens were constructed and separated into 13 levels. Each level had from one to many Lords living in and ruling these heavens. Most important of these heavens was Omeyocan (Place of Two). The Thirteen Heavens were ruled by Ometeotl, the dual Lord, creator of the Dual-Genesis who, as male, takes the name Ometecuhtli (Two Lord), and as female is named Omecihuatl (Two Lady).


title: Heaven

text: In the creation myths of Polynesian mythology are found various concepts of the heavens and the underworld. These differ from one island to another. What they share is the view of the universe as an egg or coconut that is divided between the world of humans (earth), the upper world of heavenly gods, and the underworld. Each of these is subdivided in a manner reminiscent of Dante's Divine Comedy, but the number of divisions and their names differs from one Polynesian culture to another.


title: Heaven

text: In Māori mythology, the heavens are divided into a number of realms. Different tribes number the heaven differently, with as few as two and as many as fourteen levels. One of the more common versions divides heaven thus:


title: Heaven

text: The Māori believe these heavens are supported by pillars. Other Polynesian peoples see them being supported by gods (as in Hawaii). In one Tahitian legend, heaven is supported by an octopus.


title: Heaven

text: The Polynesian conception of the universe and its division is nicely illustrated by a famous drawing made by a Tuomotuan chief in 1869. Here, the nine heavens are further divided into left and right, and each stage is associated with a stage in the evolution of the earth that is portrayed below. The lowest division represents a period when the heavens hung low over the earth, which was inhabited by animals that were not known to the islanders. In the third division is shown the first murder, the first burials, and the first canoes, built by Rata. In the fourth division, the first coconut tree and other significant plants are born.


title: Heaven

text: It is believed in Theosophy, founded mainly by Helena Blavatsky, that each religion (including Theosophy) has its own individual heaven in various regions of the upper astral plane that fits the description of that heaven that is given in each religion, which a soul that has been good in their previous life on Earth will go to. The area of the upper astral plane of Earth in the upper atmosphere where the various heavens are located is called "Summerland" (Theosophists believe hell is located in the lower astral plane of Earth which extends downward from the surface of the earth down to its center). However, Theosophists believe that the soul is recalled back to Earth after an average of about 1400 years by the "Lords of Karma" to incarnate again. The final heaven that souls go to billions of years in the future after they finish their cycle of incarnations is called "Devachan".


title: Heaven

text: Anarchist Emma Goldman expressed this view when she wrote, "Consciously or unconsciously, most theists see in gods and devils, heaven and hell, reward and punishment, a whip to lash the people into obedience, meekness and contentment."


title: Heaven

text: Some have argued that a belief in a reward after death is poor motivation for moral behavior while alive. Sam Harris wrote, "It is rather more noble to help people purely out of concern for their suffering than it is to help them because you think the Creator of the Universe wants you to do it, or will reward you for doing it, or will punish you for not doing it. The problem with this linkage between religion and morality is that it gives people bad reasons to help other human beings when good reasons are available."


title: Heaven

text: Many neuroscientists and neurophilosophers, such as Daniel Dennett, believe that consciousness is dependent upon the functioning of the brain and death is a cessation of consciousness, which would rule out heaven. Scientific research has discovered that some areas of the brain, like the reticular activating system or the thalamus, appear to be necessary for consciousness, because dysfunction of or damage to these structures causes a loss of consciousness.


title: Heaven

text: In "Inside the Neolithic Mind" (2005), Lewis-Williams and Pearce argue that many cultures around the world and through history neurally perceive a tiered structure of heaven, along with similarly structured circles of hell. The reports match so similarly across time and space that Lewis-Williams and Pearce argue for a neuroscientific explanation, accepting the percepts as real neural activations and subjective percepts during particular altered states of consciousness.


title: Heaven

text: Many people who come close to death and have near-death experiences report meeting relatives or entering "the Light" in an otherworldly dimension, which shares similarities with the religious concept of heaven. Even though there are also reports of distressing experiences and negative life-reviews, which share some similarities with the concept of hell, the positive experience of meeting or entering "the Light" is reported as an immensely intense feeling of a state of love, peace and joy beyond human comprehension. Together with this intensely positive-feeling state, people who have near-death experiences also report that consciousness or a heightened state of awareness seems as if it is at the heart of experiencing a taste of "heaven".


title: Heaven

text: Works of fiction have included numerous different conceptions of Heaven and Hell. The two most famous descriptions of Heaven are given in Dante Alighieri's "Paradiso" (of the "Divine Comedy") and John Milton's "Paradise Lost".


title: Flax

text: Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, Linum usitatissimum, in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in Western countries as linen and are traditionally used for bed sheets, underclothes, and table linen. Its oil is known as linseed oil. In addition to referring to the plant, the word "flax" may refer to the unspun fibers of the flax plant. The plant species is known only as a cultivated plant and appears to have been domesticated just once from the wild species "Linum bienne", called pale flax. The plants "flax" in New Zealand are, by contrast, members of the genus "Phormium".


title: Flax

text: Several other species in the genus "Linum" are similar in appearance to "L. usitatissimum", cultivated flax, including some that have similar blue flowers, and others with white, yellow, or red flowers. Some of these are perennial plants, unlike "L. usitatissimum", which is an annual plant.


title: Flax

text: Cultivated flax plants grow to tall, with slender stems. The leaves are glaucous green, slender lanceolate, 20–40 mm long, and 3 mm broad.


title: Flax

text: The flowers are pure pale blue, 15–25 mm in diameter, with five petals. The fruit is a round, dry capsule 5–9 mm in diameter, containing several glossy brown seeds shaped like an apple pip, 4–7 mm long.


title: Flax

text: The earliest evidence of humans using wild flax as a textile comes from the present-day Republic of Georgia, where spun, dyed, and knotted wild flax fibers found in Dzudzuana Cave date to the Upper Paleolithic, 30,000 years ago. Humans first domesticated flax in the Fertile Crescent region. Evidence exists of a domesticated oilseed flax with increased seed-size from Tell Ramad in Syria and flax fabric fragments from Çatalhöyük in Turkey by years ago. Use of the crop steadily spread, reaching as far as Switzerland and Germany by 5,000 years ago. In China and India, domesticated flax was cultivated at least 5,000 years ago.


title: Flax

text: Flax was cultivated extensively in ancient Egypt, where the temple walls had paintings of flowering flax, and mummies were embalmed using linen. Egyptian priests wore only linen, as flax was considered a symbol of purity. Phoenicians traded Egyptian linen throughout the Mediterranean and the Romans used it for their sails. As the Roman Empire declined, so did flax production. But with laws designed to publicize the hygiene of linen textiles and the health of linseed oil, Charlemagne revived the crop in the eighth century CE. Eventually, Flanders became the major center of the European linen industry in the Middle Ages. In North America, colonists introduced flax, and it flourished there, but by the early 20th century, cheap cotton and rising farm wages had caused production of flax to become concentrated in northern Russia, which came to provide 90% of the world's output. Since then, flax has lost its importance as a commercial crop, due to the easy availability of more durable fibres.


title: Flax

text: Flax is grown for its seeds, which can be ground into a meal or turned into linseed oil, a product used as a nutritional supplement and as an ingredient in many wood-finishing products. Flax is also grown as an ornamental plant in gardens. Moreover, flax fibers are used to make linen. The specific epithet in its species name, "usitatissimum," means "most useful".


title: Flax

text: Flax fibers taken from the stem of the plant are two to three times as strong as cotton fibers. Additionally, flax fibers are naturally smooth and straight. Europe and North America both depended on flax for plant-based cloth until the 19th century, when cotton overtook flax as the most common plant for making rag-based paper. Flax is grown on the Canadian prairies for linseed oil, which is used as a drying oil in paints and varnishes and in products such as linoleum and printing inks.


title: Flax

text: Flax seeds occur in two basic varieties/colors: brown or yellow (golden linseeds). Most types of these basic varieties have similar nutritional characteristics and equal numbers of short-chain omega-3 fatty acids. Yellow flax seeds, called solin (trade name "Linola"), have a similar oil profile to brown flax seeds and both are very high in omega-3s (alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), specifically).


title: Flax

text: Flax seeds produce a vegetable oil known as flax seed oil or linseed oil, which is one of the oldest commercial oils. It is an edible oil obtained by expeller pressing and sometimes followed by solvent extraction. Solvent-processed flax seed oil has been used for many centuries as a drying oil in painting and varnishing.


title: Flax

text: Although brown flax seed varieties may be consumed as readily as the yellow ones, and have been for thousands of years, these varieties are more commonly used in paints, for fiber, and for cattle feed.


title: Flax

text: A 100-gram portion of ground flax seed supplies about of food energy, 41 g of fat, 28 g of fiber, and 20 g of protein. Whole flax seeds are chemically stable, but ground flax seed meal, because of oxidation, may go rancid when left exposed to air at room temperature in as little as a week. Refrigeration and storage in sealed containers will keep ground flax seed meal for a longer period before it turns rancid. Under conditions similar to those found in commercial bakeries, trained sensory panelists could not detect differences between bread made with freshly ground flax seed and bread made with flax seed that had been milled four months earlier and stored at room temperature. If packed immediately without exposure to air and light, milled flax seed is stable against excessive oxidation when stored for nine months at room temperature, and under warehouse conditions, for 20 months at ambient temperatures.


title: Flax

text: Three phenolic glucosides—secoisolariciresinol diglucoside, p-coumaric acid glucoside, and ferulic acid glucoside—are present in commercial breads containing flax seed.


title: Flax

text: After crushing the seeds to extract linseed oil, the resultant linseed meal is a protein-rich feed for ruminants, rabbits, and fish. It is also often used as feed for swine and poultry, and has also been used in horse concentrate and dog food. The high omega-3 fatty acid (ALA) content of linseed meal "softens" milk, eggs or meat, which means it causes a higher unsaturated fat content and thus lowers its storage time. The high omega-3 content also has a further disadvantage, because this fatty acid oxidises and goes rancid quickly, which shortens the storage time. Linola was developed in Australia and introduced in the 1990s with less omega-3, specifically to serve as fodder. Another disadvantage of the meal and seed is that it contains a vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) antagonist, and may require this vitamin be supplemented, especially in chickens, and furthermore linseeds contain 2–7% of mucilage (fibre), which may be beneficial in humans and cattle, but cannot be digested by non-ruminants and can be detrimental to young animals, unless possibly treated with enzymes.


title: Flax

text: Linseed meal is added to cattle feed as a protein supplement. It can only be added at low percentages due to the high fat content, which is unhealthy for ruminants. Compared to oilseed meal from crucifers it measures as having lower nutrient values, however, good results are obtained in cattle, perhaps due to the mucilage, which may aid in slowing digestion and thus allowing more time to absorb nutrients. One study found that feeding flax seeds may increase omega-3 content in beef, while another found no differences. It might also act as a substitute for tallow in increasing marbling. In the US, flax-based feed for ruminants is often somewhat more expensive than other feeds on a nutrient basis. Sheep feeding on low quality forage are able to eat a large amount of linseed meal, up to 40% in one test, with positive consequences. It has been fed as supplement to water buffaloes in India, and provided a better diet than forage alone, but not as good as when substituted with soy meal. It is considered an inferior protein supplement for swine because of its fibre, the vitamin antagonist, the high omega-3 content and its low lysine content, and can only be used in small amounts in the feed. Although it may increase the omega-3 content in eggs and meat, it is also an inferior and potentially toxic feed for poultry, although it can be used in small amounts. The meal is an adequate and traditional source of protein for rabbits at 8–10%. Its use in fish feeds is limited.


title: Flax

text: Raw, immature linseeds contain an amount of cyanogenic compounds and can be dangerous for monogastric animals such as horses or rabbits. Boiling removes the danger. This is not an issue in meal cake due to the processing temperature during oil extraction.


title: Flax

text: Flax straw left over from the harvesting of oilseed is not very nutritious; it is tough and indigestible, and is not recommended to use as ruminant fodder, although it may be used as bedding or baled as windbreaks.


title: Flax

text: Flax fiber is extracted from the bast beneath the surface of the stem of the flax plant. Flax fiber is soft, lustrous, and flexible; bundles of fiber have the appearance of blonde hair, hence the description "flaxen" hair. It is stronger than cotton fiber, but less elastic.


title: Flax

text: The use of flax fibers dates back tens of millennia; linen, a refined textile made from flax fibers, was worn widely by Sumerian priests more than 4,000 years ago. Industrial-scale flax fiber processing existed in antiquity. A Bronze Age factory dedicated to flax processing was discovered in Euonymeia, Greece.


title: Flax

text: The best grades are used for fabrics such as damasks, lace, and sheeting. Coarser grades are used for the manufacturing of twine and rope, and historically, for canvas and webbing equipment. Flax fiber is a raw material used in the high-quality paper industry for the use of printed banknotes, laboratory paper (blotting and filter), rolling paper for cigarettes, and tea bags.


title: Flax

text: Flax mills for spinning flaxen yarn were invented by John Kendrew and Thomas Porthouse of Darlington, England, in 1787. New methods of processing flax have led to renewed interest in the use of flax as an industrial fiber.


title: Flax

text: Flax seeds are 7% water, 18% protein, 29% carbohydrates, and 42% fat (table). In as a reference amount, flax seeds provide 534 kilocalories and contain high levels (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of protein, dietary fiber, several B vitamins, and dietary minerals. Flax seeds are especially rich in thiamine, magnesium, and phosphorus (DVs above 90%) (table).


title: Flax

text: As a percentage of total fat, flax seeds contain 54% omega-3 fatty acids (mostly ALA), 18% omega-9 fatty acids (oleic acid), and 6% omega-6 fatty acids (linoleic acid); the seeds contain 9% saturated fat, including 5% as palmitic acid. Flax seed oil contains 53% 18:3 omega-3 fatty acids (mostly ALA) and 13% 18:2 omega-6 fatty acids.


title: Flax

text: A meta-analysis showed that consumption of more than 30 g of flax-seed daily for more than 12 weeks reduced body weight, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference for persons with a BMI greater than 27. Another meta-analysis showed that consumption of flax seeds for more than 12 weeks produced small reductions in systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. A third showed that consuming flax seed or its derivatives may reduce total and LDL-cholesterol in the blood, with greater benefits in women and people with high cholesterol. A fourth showed a small reduction in c-reactive protein (a marker of inflammation) only in persons with a body mass index greater than 30.


title: Flax

text: Flax seed and its oil are generally recognized as safe for human consumption. Like many common foods, flax contains small amounts of cyanogenic glycoside, which is nontoxic when consumed in typical amounts, but may be toxic when consumed in large quantities as with staple foods such as cassava. Typical concentrations (for example, 0.48% in a sample of defatted dehusked flax seed meal) can be removed by special processing.


title: Flax

text: The soils most suitable for flax, besides the alluvial kind, are deep loams containing a large proportion of organic matter. Flax is often found growing just above the waterline in cranberry bogs. Heavy clays are unsuitable, as are soils of a gravelly or dry sandy nature. Farming flax requires few fertilizers or pesticides. Within eight weeks of sowing, the plant can reach in height, reaching within 50 days.


title: Flax

text: In 2020, world production of flax (linseed) was 3.4 million tonnes, led by Kazakhstan with 31% of the total. Other major producers were Russia, Canada, and China (table).


title: Flax

text: Flax is harvested for fiber production after about 100 days, or a month after the plants flower and two weeks after the seed capsules form. The bases of the plants begin to turn yellow. If the plants are still green, the seed will not be useful, and the fiber will be underdeveloped. The fiber degrades once the plants turn brown.


title: Flax

text: Flax grown for seed is allowed to mature until the seed capsules are yellow and just starting to split; it is then harvested in various ways. A combine harvester may either cut only the heads of the plants, or the whole plant. These are then dried to extract the seed. The amount of weeds in the straw affects its marketability, and this, coupled with market prices, determines whether the farmer chooses to harvest the flax straw. If the flax straw is not harvested, typically, it is burned, since the stalks are quite tough and decompose slowly ("i.e.", not in a single season). Formed into windrows from the harvesting process, the straw often clogs up tillage and planting equipment. Flax straw that is not of sufficient quality for fiber uses can be baled to build shelters for farm animals, or sold as biofuel, or removed from the field in the spring.


title: Flax

text: Two ways are used to harvest flax fiber, one involving mechanized equipment (combines), and a second method, more manual and targeting maximum fiber length.


title: Flax

text: Flax for fiber production is usually harvested by a specialized flax harvester. Usually built on the same machine base as a combine, but instead of the cutting head it has a flax puller. The flax plant turned over and is gripped by rubber belts roughly 20–25 cm (8–10 inches) above ground, to avoid getting grasses and weeds in the flax. The rubber belts then pull the whole plant out of the ground with the roots so the whole length of the plant fiber can be used. The plants then pass over the machine and is placed on the field crosswise to the harvesters direction of travel. The plants are left in the field for field retting.


title: Flax

text: The mature plant can also be cut with mowing equipment, similar to hay harvesting, and raked into windrows. When dried sufficiently, a combine then harvests the seeds similar to wheat or oat harvesting.


title: Flax

text: The plant is pulled up with the roots (not cut), so as to increase the fiber length. After this, the flax is allowed to dry, the seeds are removed, and it is then retted. Dependent upon climatic conditions, characteristics of the sown flax and fields, the flax remains on the ground between two weeks and two months for retting. As a result of alternating rain and the sun, an enzymatic action degrades the pectins which bind fibers to the straw. The farmers turn over the straw during retting to evenly rett the stalks. When the straw is retted and sufficiently dry, it is rolled up. It is then stored by farmers before extracting the fibers.


title: Flax

text: Threshing is the process of removing the seeds from the rest of the plant. Separating the usable flax fibers from other components requires pulling the stems through a hackle and/or beating the plants to break them.


title: Flax

text: Flax processing is divided into two parts: the first part is generally done by the farmer, to bring the flax fiber into a fit state for general or common purposes. This can be performed by three machines: one for threshing out the seed, one for breaking and separating the straw (stem) from the fiber, and one for further separating the broken straw and matter from the fiber.


title: Flax

text: The second part of the process brings the flax into a state for the very finest purposes, such as lace, cambric, damask, and very fine linen. This second part is performed by a refining machine.


title: Flax

text: Before the flax fibers can be spun into linen, they must be separated from the rest of the stalk. The first step in this process is retting, which is the process of rotting away the inner stalk, leaving the outer parts intact. At this point, straw, or coarse outer stem (cortex and epidermis), is still remaining. To remove this, the flax is "broken", the straw is broken up into small, short bits, while the actual fiber is left unharmed. Scutching scrapes the outer straw from the fiber. The stems are then pulled through "hackles", which act like combs to remove the straw and some shorter fibers out of the long fiber.


title: Flax

text: Several methods are used for retting flax. It can be retted in a pond, stream, field, or tank. When the retting is complete, the bundles of flax feel soft and slimy, and quite a few fibers are standing out from the stalks. When wrapped around a finger, the inner woody part springs away from the fibers. Pond retting is the fastest. It consists of placing the flax in a pool of water which will not evaporate. It generally takes place in a shallow pool which will warm up dramatically in the sun; the process may take from a few days to a few weeks. Pond-retted flax is traditionally considered of lower quality, possibly because the product can become dirty, and is easily over-retted, damaging the fiber. This form of retting also produces quite an odor. Stream retting is similar to pool retting, but the flax is submerged in bundles in a stream or river. This generally takes two or three weeks longer than pond retting, but the end product is less likely to be dirty, does not smell as bad, and because the water is cooler, is less likely to be over-retted. Both pond and stream retting were traditionally used less because they pollute the waters used for the process.


title: Flax

text: In field retting, the flax is laid out in a large field, and dew is allowed to collect on it. This process normally takes a month or more, but is generally considered to provide the highest quality flax fibers, and it produces the least pollution.


title: Flax

text: Retting can also be done in a plastic trash can or any type of water-tight container of wood, concrete, earthenware, or plastic. Metal containers will not work, as an acid is produced when retting, and it would corrode the metal. If the water temperature is kept at , the retting process under these conditions takes 4 or 5 days. If the water is any colder, it takes longer. Scum collects at the top, and an odor is given off the same as in pond retting. 'Enzymatic' retting of flax has been researched as a technique to engineer fibers with specific properties.


title: Flax

text: Dressing the flax is the process of removing the straw from the fibers. Dressing consists of three steps: breaking, scutching, and heckling. The breaking breaks up the straw. Some of the straw is scraped from the fibers in the scutching process, and finally, the fiber is pulled through heckles to remove the last bits of straw.


title: Flax

text: Heckling is pulling the fiber through various sizes of heckling combs or heckles. A heckle is a bed of "nails"—sharp, long-tapered, tempered, polished steel pins driven into wooden blocks at regular spacing.


title: Flax

text: In September 2009, Canadian flax exports reportedly had been contaminated by a deregistered genetically modified cultivar called 'Triffid' that had food and feed safety approval in Canada and the U.S. Canadian growers and the Flax Council of Canada raised concerns about the marketability of this cultivar in Europe where a zero tolerance policy exists regarding unapproved genetically modified organisms. Consequently, Triffid was deregistered in 2010 and never grown commercially in Canada or the U.S. Triffid stores were destroyed, but future exports and further tests at the University of Saskatchewan proved that Triffid persisted in at least two Canadian flax varieties, possibly affecting future crops. Canadian flax seed cultivars were reconstituted with Triffid-free seed used to plant the 2014 crop. Laboratories are certified to test for the presence of Triffid at a level of one seed in 10,000.


title: Flax

text: Flax is an emblem of Northern Ireland and displayed by the Northern Ireland Assembly. In a coronet, it appeared on the reverse of the British one-pound coin to represent Northern Ireland on coins minted in 1986, 1991, and 2014. Flax also represents Northern Ireland on the badge of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and on various logos associated with it.


title: Flax

text: In early versions of the Sleeping Beauty tale, such as "Sun, Moon, and Talia" by Giambattista Basile, the princess pricks her finger, not on a spindle, but on a sliver of flax, which later is sucked out by her children conceived as she sleeps.


title: Dire wolf

text: The dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus ) is an extinct canine. It is one of the most famous prehistoric carnivores in North America, along with its extinct competitor "Smilodon". The dire wolf lived in the Americas and eastern Asia during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs (125,000–9,500 years ago). The species was named in 1858, four years after the first specimen had been found. Two subspecies are recognized: "Aenocyon dirus guildayi" and "Aenocyon dirus dirus". The largest collection of its fossils has been obtained from the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.


title: Dire wolf

text: Dire wolf remains have been found across a broad range of habitats including the plains, grasslands, and some forested mountain areas of North America, the arid savanna of South America, and the steppes of eastern Asia. The sites range in elevation from sea level to . Dire wolf fossils have rarely been found north of 42°N latitude; there have been only five unconfirmed reports above this latitude. This range restriction is thought to be due to temperature, prey, or habitat limitations imposed by proximity to the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets that existed at the time. However, the 2020 discovery of dire wolf fossils in northeast China indicates that dire wolves had crossed Beringia when it existed.


title: Dire wolf

text: The dire wolf was about the same size as the largest modern gray wolves ("Canis lupus"): the Yukon wolf and the northwestern wolf. "A.d.guildayi" weighed on average and "A.d.dirus" was on average . Its skull and dentition matched those of "C.lupus", but its teeth were larger with greater shearing ability, and its bite force at the canine tooth was stronger than any known "Canis" species. These characteristics are thought to be adaptations for preying on Late Pleistocene megaherbivores, and in North America, its prey is known to have included western horses, ground sloths, mastodons, ancient bison, and camels. Its extinction occurred during the along with its main prey species. Its reliance on megaherbivores has been proposed as the cause of its extinction, along with climatic change and competition with other species, or a combination of those factors. Dire wolves lived as recently as 9,500 years ago, according to dated remains.


title: Dire wolf

text: From the 1850s, the fossil remains of extinct large wolves were being found in the United States, and it was not immediately clear that these all belonged to one species. The first specimen of what would later become associated with "Aenocyon dirus" was found in mid-1854 in the bed of the Ohio River near Evansville, Indiana. The fossilized jawbone with cheek teeth was obtained by the geologist Joseph Granville Norwood from an Evansville collector, Francis A. Linck. The paleontologist Joseph Leidy determined that the specimen represented an extinct species of wolf and reported it under the name of "Canis primaevus". Norwood's letters to Leidy are preserved along with the type specimen (the first of a species that has a written description) at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. In 1857, while exploring the Niobrara River valley in Nebraska, Leidy found the vertebrae of an extinct "Canis" species that he reported the following year under the name "C.dirus". The name "C.primaevus" (Leidy 1854) was later renamed "Canis indianensis" (Leidy 1869) when Leidy found out that the name "C.primaevus" had previously been used by the British naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson for the dhole.


title: Dire wolf

text: In 1876 the zoologist Joel Asaph Allen discovered the remains of "Canis mississippiensis" (Allen 1876) and associated these with "C.dirus" (Leidy 1858) and "Canis indianensis" (Leidy 1869). As so little was found of these three specimens, Allen thought it best to leave each specimen listed under its provisional name until more material could be found to reveal their relationship. In 1908 the paleontologist John Campbell Merriam began retrieving numerous fossilized bone fragments of a large wolf from the Rancho LaBrea tar pits. By 1912 he had found a skeleton sufficiently complete to be able to formally recognize these and the previously found specimens under the name "C.dirus" (Leidy 1858). Because the rules of nomenclature stipulated that the name of a species should be the oldest name ever applied to it, Merriam therefore selected the name of Leidy's 1858 specimen, "C.dirus". In 1915 the paleontologist Edward Troxell indicated his agreement with Merriam when he declared "C.indianensis" a synonym of "C.dirus". In 1918, after studying these fossils, Merriam proposed consolidating their names under the separate genus "Aenocyon" (from "ainos", 'terrible' and "cyon", 'dog') to become "Aenocyon dirus", but at that time not everyone agreed with this extinct wolf being placed in a new genus separate from the genus "Canis". "Canis ayersi" (Sellards 1916) and "Aenocyon dirus" (Merriam 1918) were recognized as synonyms of "C.dirus" by the paleontologist Ernest Lundelius in 1972. All of the above taxa were declared synonyms of "C.dirus" in 1979, according to the paleontologist Ronald M. Nowak.


title: Dire wolf

text: In 1984 a study by Björn Kurtén recognized a geographic variation within the dire wolf populations and proposed two subspecies: "Canis dirus guildayi" (named by Kurtén in honor of the paleontologist John E. Guilday) for specimens from California and Mexico that exhibited shorter limbs and longer teeth, and "Canis dirus dirus" for specimens east of the North American Continental Divide that exhibited longer limbs and shorter teeth. Kurtén designated a maxilla found in Hermit's Cave, New Mexico as representing the nominate subspecies "C. d. dirus".


title: Dire wolf

text: In 2021, a DNA study found the dire wolf to be a highly divergent lineage when compared with the extant wolf-like canines, and this finding is consistent with the previously proposed taxonomic classification of the dire wolf as genus "Aenocyon" (Ancient Greek: "terrible wolf") as proposed by Merriam in 1918.


title: Dire wolf

text: In North America, the canid family came into existence 40 million years ago, with the canine subfamily Caninae coming into existence about 32 million years ago. From the Caninae, the ancestors of the fox-like Vulpini and the dog-like Canini came into existence 9 million years ago. This group was first represented by "Eucyon", and mostly by coyote-like "Eucyon davisi" that was spread widely across North America. From the Canini the Cerdocyonina, today represented by the South American canids, came into existence 6–5 million years ago. Its sister the wolf-like Canina came into existence 5 million years ago, however, they are likely to have originated as far back as 9 million years ago. Around 7 million years ago, the canines expanded into Eurasia and Africa, with "Eucyon" giving rise to the first of genus "Canis" in Europe. Around 4–3 million years ago "C. chihliensis", the first wolf-sized member of "Canis", arose in China and expanded to give rise to other wolf-like members across Eurasia and Africa. Members of genus "Canis" would later expand into North America.


title: Dire wolf

text: The dire wolf evolved in North America. However, the ancestral lineage that gave rise to it is debated with two competing theories. The first theory is based on fossil morphology, which indicates an expansion of genus "Canis" from out of Eurasia led to the dire wolf. The second theory is based on DNA evidence, which indicates the dire wolf arose from an ancestral lineage that originated in the Americas and was separate from genus "Canis".


title: Dire wolf

text: Morphological evidence based on fossil remains indicates an expansion of genus "Canis" from out of Eurasia led to the dire wolf.


title: Dire wolf

text: In 1974 RobertA.Martin proposed that the large North American wolf "C.armbrusteri" (Armbruster's wolf) was "C.lupus". Nowak, Kurtén, and Annalisa Berta proposed that "C.dirus" was not derived from "C.lupus". In 1987, a new hypothesis proposed that a mammal population could give rise to a larger form called a hypermorph during times when food was abundant, but when food later became scarce the hypermorph would either adapt to a smaller form or go extinct. This hypothesis might explain the large body sizes found in many Late Pleistocene mammals compared to their modern counterparts. Both extinction and speciationa process by which a new species splits from an older onecould occur together during periods of climatic extremes. Gloria D. Goulet agreed with Martin, proposing further that this hypothesis might explain the sudden appearance of "C.dirus" in North America and, judging from the similarities in their skull shapes, that "C.lupus" had given rise to the "C.dirus" hypermorph due to an abundance of game, a stable environment, and large competitors.


title: Dire wolf

text: The three paleontologists Xiaoming Wang, Richard H. Tedford, and Ronald M. Nowak propose that "C.dirus" evolved from "Canis armbrusteri", with Nowak stating that both species arose in the Americas and that specimens found in Cumberland Cave, Maryland, appear to be "C.armbrusteri" diverging into "C.dirus". Nowak believed that "Canis edwardii" was the first appearance of the wolf in North America, and it appears to be close to the lineage which produced "C. armbrusteri" and "C. dirus". Tedford believes that the early wolf from China, "Canis chihliensis", may have been the ancestor of both "C.armbrusteri" and the gray wolf "C.lupus". The sudden appearance of "C.armbrusteri" in mid-latitude North America during the Early Pleistocene 1.5 million years ago along with the mammoth suggests that it was an immigrant from Asia, with the gray wolf "C.lupus" evolving in Beringia later in the Pleistocene and entering mid-latitude North America during the Last Glacial Period along with its Beringian prey. In 2010 Francisco Prevosti proposed that "C.dirus" was a sister taxon to "C.lupus".


title: Dire wolf

text: "C. dirus" lived in the Late Pleistocene to the early Holocene (125,000–10,000 years before present or YBP) in North and South America. The majority of fossils from the eastern "C.d.dirus" have been dated 125,000–75,000YBP, but the western "C.d.guildayi" fossils are not only smaller in size but more recent; thus it has been proposed that "C.d.guildayi" derived from "C.d.dirus". However, there are disputed specimens of "C.dirus" that date to 250,000YBP. Fossil specimens of "C.dirus" discovered at four sites in the Hay Springs area of Sheridan County, Nebraska, were named "Aenocyon dirus nebrascensis" (Frick 1930, undescribed), but Frick did not publish a description of them. Nowak later referred to this material as "C.armbrusteri"; then, in 2009, Tedford formally published a description of the specimens and noted that, although they exhibited some morphological characteristics of both "C.armbrusteri" and "C.dirus", he referred to them only as "C.dirus".


title: Dire wolf

text: A fossil discovered in the Horse Room of the Salamander Cave in the Black Hills of South Dakota may possibly be "C.dirus"; if so, this fossil is one of the earliest specimens on record. It was catalogued as "Canis cf. C.dirus" (where cf. in Latin means confer, uncertain). The fossil of a horse found in the Horse Room provided a uranium-series dating of 252,000 yearsYBP and the "Canis cf. dirus" specimen was assumed to be from the same period. "C.armbrusteri" and "C.dirus" share some characteristics (synapomorphies) that imply the latter's descent from the former. The fossil record suggests "C.dirus" originated around 250,000YBP in the open terrain of the mid-continent before expanding eastward and displacing its ancestor "C.armbrusteri". The first appearance of "C.dirus" would therefore be 250,000YBP in California and Nebraska, and later in the rest of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru, but the identity of these earliest fossils is not confirmed.


title: Dire wolf

text: In South America, "C.dirus" specimens dated to the Late Pleistocene were found along the north and west coasts, but none have been found in Argentina, an area that was inhabited by "Canisgezi" and "Canis nehringi". Given their similarities and timeframes, it is proposed that "Canis gezi" was the ancestor of "Canis nehringi". One study found that "C.dirus" was more evolutionarily derived compared with "C.nehringi", and was larger in the size and construction of its lower molars for more efficient predation. For this reason, some researchers have proposed that "C.dirus" may have originated in South America. Tedford proposed that "C.armbrusteri" was the common ancestor for both the North and South American wolves. Later studies concluded that "C.dirus" and "C.nehringi" were the same species, and that "C.dirus" had migrated from North America into South America, making it a participant in the Great American Interchange. In 2018, a study found that "Canis gezi" did not fall under genus "Canis" and should be classified under the subtribe Cerdocyonina, however no genus was proposed.


title: Dire wolf

text: DNA evidence indicates the dire wolf arose from an ancestral lineage that originated in the Americas and was separate to genus "Canis".


title: Dire wolf

text: In 1992 an attempt was made to extract a mitochondrial DNA sequence from the skeletal remains of "A.d.guildayi" to compare its relationship to other "Canis" species. The attempt was unsuccessful because these remains had been removed from the LaBrea pits and tar could not be removed from the bone material. In 2014 an attempt to extract DNA from a Columbian mammoth from the tar pits also failed, with the study concluding that organic compounds from the asphalt permeate the bones of all ancient samples from the LaBrea pits, hindering the extraction of DNA samples.


title: Dire wolf

text: In 2021, researchers sequenced the nuclear DNA (from the cell nucleus) taken from five dire wolf fossils dating from 13,000 to 50,000 years ago. The sequences indicate the dire wolf to be a highly divergent lineage which last shared a most recent common ancestor with the wolf-like canines 5.7 million years ago. The study also measured numerous dire wolf and gray wolf skeletal samples that showed their morphologies to be highly similar, which had led to the theory that the dire wolf and the gray wolf had a close evolutionary relationship. The morphological similarity between dire wolves and gray wolves was concluded to be due to convergent evolution. Members of the wolf-like canines are known to hybridize with each other but the study could find no indication of genetic admixture from the five dire wolf samples with extant North American gray wolves and coyotes nor their common ancestor. This finding indicates that the wolf and coyote lineages evolved in isolation from the dire wolf lineage.


title: Dire wolf

text: The study proposes an early origin of the dire wolf lineage in the Americas, and that this geographic isolation allowed them to develop a degree of reproductive isolation since their divergence 5.7 million years ago. Coyotes, dholes, gray wolves, and the extinct "Xenocyon" evolved in Eurasia and expanded into North America relatively recently during the Late Pleistocene, therefore there was no admixture with the dire wolf. The long-term isolation of the dire wolf lineage implies that other American fossil taxa, including "C. armbrusteri" and "C. edwardii", may also belong to the dire wolf's lineage. The study's findings are consistent with the previously proposed taxonomic classification of the dire wolf as genus "Aenocyon".


title: Dire wolf

text: The age of most dire wolf localities is determined solely by biostratigraphy, but biostratigraphy is an unreliable indicator within asphalt deposits. Some sites have been radiocarbon dated, with dire wolf specimens from the LaBrea pits dated in calendar years as follows: 82 specimens dated 13,000–14,000YBP; 40 specimens dated 14,000–16,000YBP; 77 specimens dated 14,000–18,000YBP; 37 specimens dated 17,000–18,000YBP; 26 specimens dated 21,000–30,000YBP; 40 specimens dated 25,000–28,000YBP; and 6specimens dated 32,000–37,000YBP. A specimen from Powder Mill Creek Cave, Missouri, was dated at 13,170YBP.


title: Dire wolf

text: The average dire wolf proportions were similar to those of two modern North American wolves: the Yukon wolf ("Canis lupus pambasileus") and the Northwestern wolf ("Canis lupus occidentalis"). The largest northern wolves today have a shoulder height of up to and a body length of . Some dire wolf specimens from Rancho LaBrea are smaller than this, and some are larger.


title: Dire wolf

text: The dire wolf had smaller feet and a larger head when compared with a northern wolf of the same body size. The skull length could reach up to or longer, with a broader palate, frontal region, and zygomatic arches compared with the Yukon wolf. These dimensions make the skull very massive. Its sagittal crest was higher, with the inion showing a significant backward projection, and with the rear ends of the nasal bones extending relatively far back into the skull. A connected skeleton of a dire wolf from Rancho LaBrea is difficult to find because the tar allows the bones to disassemble in many directions. Parts of a vertebral column have been assembled, and it was found to be similar to that of the modern wolf, with the same number of vertebrae.


title: Dire wolf

text: Geographic differences in dire wolves were not detected until 1984, when a study of skeletal remains showed differences in a few cranio-dental features and limb proportions between specimens from California and Mexico ("A.d.guildayi") and those found from the east of the Continental Divide ("A.d.dirus"). A comparison of limb size shows that the rear limbs of "A.d.guildayi" were 8% shorter than the Yukon wolf due to a significantly shorter tibia and metatarsus, and that the front limbs were also shorter due to their slightly shorter lower bones. With its comparatively lighter and smaller limbs and massive head, "A.d.guildayi" was not as well adapted for running as timber wolves and coyotes. "A.d.dirus" possessed significantly longer limbs than "A.d.guildayi". The forelimbs were 14% longer than "A.d.guildayi" due to 10% longer humeri, 15% longer radii, and 15% longer metacarpals. The rear limbs were 10% longer than "A.d.guildayi" due to 10% longer femora and tibiae, and 15% longer metatarsals. "A.d.dirus" is comparable to the Yukon wolf in limb length. The largest "A.d.dirus" femur was found in Carroll Cave, Missouri, and measured .


title: Dire wolf

text: "A.d.guildayi" is estimated to have weighed on average , and "A.d.dirus" weighed on average with some specimens being larger, but these could not have exceeded due to skeletal limits. In comparison, the average weight of the Yukon wolf is for males and for females. Individual weights for Yukon wolves can vary from to , with one Yukon wolf weighing . These figures show the average dire wolf to be similar in size to the largest modern gray wolf.


title: Dire wolf

text: The remains of a complete male "A. dirus" are sometimes easy to identify compared to other "Canis" specimens because the baculum (penis bone) of the dire wolf is very different from that of all other living canids.


title: Dire wolf

text: Ecological factors such as habitat type, climate, prey specialization, and predatory competition have been shown to greatly influence gray wolf craniodental plasticity, which is an adaptation of the cranium and teeth due to the influences of the environment. Similarly, the dire wolf was a hypercarnivore, with a skull and dentition adapted for hunting large and struggling prey; the shape of its skull and snout changed across time, and changes in the size of its body have been correlated with climate fluctuations.


title: Dire wolf

text: The last glacial period, commonly referred to as the "Ice Age", spanned 125,000–14,500YBP and was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age, which occurred during the last years of the Pleistocene era. The Ice Age reached its peak during the Last Glacial Maximum, when ice sheets began advancing from 33,000YBP and reached their maximum limits 26,500YBP. Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere approximately 19,000YBP and in Antarctica approximately 14,500YBP, which is consistent with evidence that glacial meltwater was the primary source for an abrupt rise in sea level 14,500YBP. Access into northern North America was blocked by the Wisconsin glaciation. The fossil evidence from the Americas points to the extinction mainly of large animals, termed Pleistocene megafauna, near the end of the last glaciation.


title: Dire wolf

text: Coastal southern California from 60,000YBP to the end of the Last Glacial Maximum was cooler and with a more balanced supply of moisture than today. During the Last Glacial Maximum, the mean annual temperature decreased from down to degrees, and annual precipitation had decreased from down to . This region was unaffected by the climatic effects of the Wisconsin glaciation and is thought to have been an Ice Age refugium for animals and cold-sensitive plants. By 24,000YBP, the abundance of oak and chaparral decreased, but pines increased, creating open parklands similar to today's coastal montane/juniper woodlands. After 14,000YBP, the abundance of conifers decreased, and those of the modern coastal plant communities, including oak woodland, chaparral, and coastal sage scrub, increased. The Santa Monica Plain lies north of the city of Santa Monica and extends along the southern base of the Santa Monica Mountains, and 28,000–26,000YBP it was dominated by coastal sage scrub, with cypress and pines at higher elevations. The Santa Monica Mountains supported a chaparral community on its slopes and isolated coast redwood and dogwood in its protected canyons, along with river communities that included willow, red cedar, and sycamore. These plant communities suggest a winter rainfall similar to that of modern coastal southern California, but the presence of coast redwood now found to the north indicates a cooler, moister, and less seasonal climate than today. This environment supported large herbivores that were prey for dire wolves and their competitors.


title: Dire wolf

text: A range of animal and plant specimens that became entrapped and were then preserved in tar pits have been removed and studied so that researchers can learn about the past. The Rancho LaBrea tar pits located near Los Angeles in Southern California are a collection of pits of sticky asphalt deposits that differ in deposition time from 40,000 to 12,000YBP. Commencing 40,000YBP, trapped asphalt has been moved through fissures to the surface by methane pressure, forming seeps that can cover several square meters and be deep. The dire wolf has been made famous because of the large number of its fossils recovered there. Over 200,000 specimens (mostly fragments) have been recovered from the tar pits, with the remains ranging from "Smilodon" to squirrels, invertebrates, and plants. The time period represented in the pits includes the Last Glacial Maximum when global temperatures were lower than today, the Pleistocene–Holocene transition (Bølling-Allerød interval), the Oldest Dryas cooling, the Younger Dryas cooling from 12,800 to 11,500YBP, and the American megafaunal extinction event 12,700YBP when 90 genera of mammals weighing over became extinct.


title: Dire wolf

text: Isotope analysis can be used to identify some chemical elements, allowing researchers to make inferences about the diet of the species found in the pits. Isotope analysis of bone collagen extracted from LaBrea specimens provides evidence that the dire wolf, "Smilodon", and the American lion ("Panthera atrox") competed for the same prey. Their prey included "yesterday's camel" ("Camelops hesternus"), the Pleistocene bison ("Bison antiquus"), the "dwarf" pronghorn ("Capromeryx minor"), the western horse ("Equus occidentalis"), and the "grazing" ground sloth ("Paramylodon harlani") native to North American grasslands. The Columbian mammoth ("Mammuthus columbi") and the American mastodon ("Mammut americanum") were rare at LaBrea. The horses remained mixed feeders and the pronghorns mixed browsers, but at the Last Glacial Maximum and its associated shift in vegetation the camels and bison were forced to rely more heavily on conifers.


title: Dire wolf

text: A study of isotope data of La Brea dire wolf fossils dated 10,000YBP provides evidence that the horse was an important prey species at the time, and that sloth, mastodon, bison, and camel were less common in the dire wolf diet. This indicates that the dire wolf was not a prey specialist, and at the close of the Late Pleistocene before its extinction it was hunting or scavenging the most available herbivores.


title: Dire wolf

text: When compared with the dentition of genus "Canis" members, the dire wolf was considered the most evolutionary derived (advanced) wolf-like species in the Americas. The dire wolf could be identified separately from all other "Canis" species by its possession of: "P2 with a posterior cusplet; P3 with two posterior cusplets; M1 with a mestascylid, entocristed, entoconulid, and a transverse crest extending from the metaconid to the hyperconular shelf; M2 with entocristed and entoconulid."


title: Dire wolf

text: A study of the estimated bite force at the canine teeth of a large sample of living and fossil mammalian predators, when adjusted for the body mass, found that for placental mammals the bite force at the canines (in newtons/kilogram of body weight) was greatest in the dire wolf (163), followed among the modern canids by the four hypercarnivores that often prey on animals larger than themselves: the African hunting dog (142), the gray wolf (136), the dhole (112), and the dingo (108). The bite force at the carnassials showed a similar trend to the canines. A predator's largest prey size is strongly influenced by its biomechanical limits. The morphology of the dire wolf was similar to that of its living relatives, and assuming that the dire wolf was a social hunter, then its high bite force relative to living canids suggests that it preyed on relatively large animals. The bite force rating of the bone-consuming spotted hyena (117) challenged the common assumption that high bite force in the canines and the carnassials was necessary to consume bone.


title: Dire wolf

text: A study of the cranial measurements and jaw muscles of dire wolves found no significant differences with modern gray wolves in all but 4 of 15 measures. Upper dentition was the same except that the dire wolf had larger dimensions, and the P4 had a relatively larger, more massive blade that enhanced slicing ability at the carnassial. The jaw of the dire wolf had a relatively broader and more massive temporalis muscle, able to generate slightly more bite force than the gray wolf. Due to the jaw arrangement, the dire wolf had less temporalis leverage than the gray wolf at the lower carnassial (m1) and lower p4, but the functional significance of this is not known. The lower premolars were relatively slightly larger than those of the gray wolf, and the dire wolf m1 was much larger and had more shearing ability. The dire wolf canines had greater bending strength than those of living canids of equivalent size and were similar to those of hyenas and felids. All these differences indicate that the dire wolf was able to deliver stronger bites than the gray wolf, and with its flexible and more rounded canines was better adapted for struggling with its prey.


title: Dire wolf

text: At La Brea, predatory birds and mammals were attracted to dead or dying herbivores that had become mired, and then these predators became trapped themselves. Herbivore entrapment was estimated to have occurred once every fifty years, and for every instance of herbivore remains found in the pits there were an estimated ten carnivores. "A.d.guildayi" is the most common carnivoran found at LaBrea, followed by "Smilodon". Remains of dire wolves outnumber remains of gray wolves in the tar pits by a ratio of five to one. During the Last Glacial Maximum, coastal California, with a climate slightly cooler and wetter than today, is thought to have been a refuge, and a comparison of the frequency of dire wolves and other predator remains at LaBrea to other parts of California and North America indicates significantly greater abundances; therefore, the higher dire wolf numbers in the LaBrea region did not reflect the wider area. Assuming that only a few of the carnivores that were feeding became trapped, it is likely that fairly sizeable groups of dire wolves fed together on these occasions.


title: Dire wolf

text: The difference between the male and female of a species apart from their sex organs is called sexual dimorphism, and in this regard little variance exists among the canids. A study of dire wolf remains dated 15,360–14,310YBP and taken from one pit that focused on skull length, canine tooth size, and lower molar length showed little dimorphism, similar to that of the gray wolf, indicating that dire wolves lived in monogamous pairs. Their large size and highly carnivorous dentition supports the proposal that the dire wolf was a predator that fed on large prey. To kill ungulates larger than themselves, the African wild dog, the dhole, and the gray wolf depend on their jaws as they cannot use their forelimbs to grapple with prey, and they work together as a pack consisting of an alpha pair and their offspring from the current and previous years. It can be assumed that dire wolves lived in packs of relatives that were led by an alpha pair. Large and social carnivores would have been successful at defending carcasses of prey trapped in the tar pits from smaller solitary predators, and thus the most likely to become trapped themselves. The many "A.d.guildayi" and "Smilodon" remains found in the tar pits suggests that both were social predators.


title: Dire wolf

text: All social terrestrial mammalian predators prey mostly on terrestrial herbivorous mammals with a body mass similar to the combined mass of the social group members attacking the prey animal. The large size of the dire wolf provides an estimated prey size in the range. Stable isotope analysis of dire wolf bones provides evidence that they had a preference for consuming ruminants such as bison rather than other herbivores but moved to other prey when food became scarce, and occasionally scavenged on beached whales along the Pacific coast when available. A pack of timber wolves can bring down a moose that is their preferred prey, and a pack of dire wolves bringing down a bison is conceivable. Although some studies have suggested that because of tooth breakage, the dire wolf must have gnawed bones and may have been a scavenger, its widespread occurrence and the more gracile limbs of the dire wolf indicate a predator. Like the gray wolf today, the dire wolf probably used its post-carnassial molars to gain access to marrow, but the dire wolf's larger size enabled it to crack larger bones.


title: Dire wolf

text: Tooth breakage is related to a carnivore's behavior. A study of nine modern carnivores found that one in four adults had suffered tooth breakage and that half of these breakages were of the canine teeth. The most breakage occurred in the spotted hyena that consumes all of its prey including the bone; the least breakage occurred in the African wild dog, and the gray wolf ranked in between these two. The eating of bone increases the risk of accidental fracture due to the relatively high, unpredictable stresses that it creates. The most commonly broken teeth are the canines, followed by the premolars, carnassial molars, and incisors. Canines are the teeth most likely to break because of their shape and function, which subjects them to bending stresses that are unpredictable in both direction and magnitude. The risk of tooth fracture is also higher when killing large prey.


title: Dire wolf

text: A study of the fossil remains of large carnivores from LaBrea pits dated 36,000–10,000YBP shows tooth breakage rates of 5–17% for the dire wolf, coyote, American lion, and "Smilodon", compared to 0.5–2.7% for ten modern predators. These higher fracture rates were across all teeth, but the fracture rates for the canine teeth were the same as in modern carnivores. The dire wolf broke its incisors more often when compared to the modern gray wolf; thus, it has been proposed that the dire wolf used its incisors more closely to the bone when feeding. Dire wolf fossils from Mexico and Peru show a similar pattern of breakage. A 1993 study proposed that the higher frequency of tooth breakage among Pleistocene carnivores compared with living carnivores was not the result of hunting larger game, something that might be assumed from the larger size of the former. When there is low prey availability, the competition between carnivores increases, causing them to eat faster and thus consume more bone, leading to tooth breakage. As their prey became extinct around 10,000 years ago, so did these Pleistocene carnivores, except for the coyote (which is an omnivore).


title: Dire wolf

text: A later La Brea pits study compared tooth breakage of dire wolves in two time periods. One pit contained fossil dire wolves dated 15,000YBP and another dated 13,000YBP. The results showed that the 15,000YBP dire wolves had three times more tooth breakage than the 13,000YBP dire wolves, whose breakage matched those of nine modern carnivores. The study concluded that between 15,000 and 14,000YBP prey availability was less or competition was higher for dire wolves and that by 13,000YBP, as the prey species moved towards extinction, predator competition had declined and therefore the frequency of tooth breakage in dire wolves had also declined.


title: Dire wolf

text: Carnivores include both pack hunters and solitary hunters. The solitary hunter depends on a powerful bite at the canine teeth to subdue their prey, and thus exhibits a strong mandibular symphysis. In contrast, a pack hunter, which delivers many shallower bites, has a comparably weaker mandibular symphysis. Thus, researchers can use the strength of the mandibular symphysis in fossil carnivore specimens to determine what kind of hunter it wasa pack hunter or a solitary hunterand even how it consumed its prey. The mandibles of canids are buttressed behind the carnassial teeth to enable the animals to crack bones with their post-carnassial teeth (molars M2 and M3). A study found that the mandible buttress profile of the dire wolf was lower than that of the gray wolf and the red wolf, but very similar to the coyote and the African hunting dog. The dorsoventrally weak symphyseal region (in comparison to premolars P3 and P4) of the dire wolf indicates that it delivered shallow bites similar to its modern relatives and was therefore a pack hunter. This suggests that the dire wolf may have processed bone but was not as well adapted for it as was the gray wolf. The fact that the incidence of fracture for the dire wolf reduced in frequency in the Late Pleistocene to that of its modern relatives suggests that reduced competition had allowed the dire wolf to return to a feeding behavior involving a lower amount of bone consumption, a behavior for which it was best suited.


title: Dire wolf

text: The results of a study of dental microwear on tooth enamel for specimens of the carnivore species from LaBrea pits, including dire wolves, suggest that these carnivores were not food-stressed just before their extinction. The evidence also indicated that the extent of carcass utilization (i.e., amount consumed relative to the maximum amount possible to consume, including breakup and consumption of bones) was less than among large carnivores today. These findings indicates that tooth breakage was related to hunting behavior and the size of prey.


title: Dire wolf

text: Past studies proposed that changes in dire wolf body size correlated with climate fluctuations. A later study compared dire wolf craniodental morphology from four LaBrea pits, each representing four different time periods. The results are evidence of a change in dire wolf size, dental wear and breakage, skull shape, and snout shape across time. Dire wolf body size had decreased between the start of the Last Glacial Maximum and near its ending at the warm Allerød oscillation. Evidence of food stress (food scarcity leading to lower nutrient intake) is seen in smaller body size, skulls with a larger cranial base, and shorter snout (shape neoteny and size neoteny), and more tooth breakage and wear. Dire wolves dated 17,900YBP showed all of these features, which indicates food stress. Dire wolves dated 28,000YBP also showed to a degree many of these features but were the largest wolves studied, and it was proposed that these wolves were also suffering from food stress and that wolves earlier than this date were even bigger in size. Nutrient stress is likely to lead to stronger bite forces to more fully consume carcasses and to crack bones, and with changes to skull shape to improve mechanical advantage. North American climate records reveal cyclic fluctuations during the glacial period that included rapid warming followed by gradual cooling, called Dansgaard–Oeschger events. These cycles would have caused increased temperature and aridity, and at LaBrea would have caused ecological stress and therefore food stress. A similar trend was found with the gray wolf, which in the Santa Barbara basin was originally massive, robust, and possibly convergent evolution with the dire wolf, but was replaced by more gracile forms by the start of the Holocene.


title: Dire wolf

text: Just before the appearance of the dire wolf, North America was invaded by the "Canis" subgenus "Xenocyon" (ancestor of the Asian dhole and the African hunting dog) that was as large as the dire wolf and more hypercarnivorous. The fossil record shows them as rare, and it is assumed that they could not compete with the newly derived dire wolf. Stable isotope analysis provides evidence that the dire wolf, "Smilodon", and the American lion competed for the same prey. Other large carnivores included the extinct North American giant short-faced bear ("Arctodus simus"), the modern cougar ("Puma concolor"), the Pleistocene coyote ("Canis latrans"), and the Pleistocene gray wolf that was more massive and robust than today. These predators may have competed with humans who hunted for similar prey.


title: Dire wolf

text: Specimens that have been identified by morphology as Beringian wolves ("C.lupus") and radiocarbon dated 25,800–14,300 YBP have been found in the Natural Trap Cave at the base of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming, in the western United States. The location is directly south of what would at that time have been a division between the Laurentide Ice Sheet and the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. A temporary channel between the glaciers may have existed that allowed these large, Alaskan direct competitors of the dire wolf, which were also adapted for preying on megafauna, to come south of the ice sheets. Dire wolf remains are absent north of the 42°Nlatitude in North America, therefore, this region would have been available for Beringian wolves to expand south along the glacier line. How widely they were then distributed is not known. These also became extinct at the end of the Late Pleistocene, as did the dire wolf.


title: Dire wolf

text: After arriving in eastern Eurasia, the dire wolf would have likely faced competition from the area's most dominant, widespread predator, the eastern subspecies of cave hyena ("Crocuta crocuta ultima"). Competition with this species may have kept Eurasian dire wolf populations very low, leading to the paucity of dire wolf fossil remains in this otherwise well-studied fossil fauna.


title: Dire wolf

text: Dire wolf remains have been found across a broad range of habitats including the plains, grasslands, and some forested mountain areas of North America, the arid savannah of South America, and the steppes of eastern Asia. The sites range in elevation from sea level to . The location of these fossil remains suggests that dire wolves lived predominantly in the open lowlands along with their prey the large herbivores. Dire wolf remains are not often found at high latitudes in North America. This lack of fossils was used as evidence that the dire wolves did not migrate east via Beringia until the discovery of Asian dire wolf remains in 2020.


title: Dire wolf

text: In the United States, dire wolf fossils have been reported in Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Nevada. The identity of fossils reported farther north than California is not confirmed. There have been five reports of unconfirmed dire wolf fossils north of 42°Nlatitude at Fossil Lake, Oregon (125,000–10,000YBP), American Falls Reservoir, Idaho (125,000–75,000YBP), Salamander Cave, South Dakota (250,000YBP), and four closely grouped sites in northern Nebraska (250,000YBP). This suggests a range restriction on dire wolves due to temperature, prey, or habitat. The major fossil-producing sites for "A.d.dirus" are located east of the Rocky Mountains and include Friesenhahn Cave, near San Antonio, Texas; Carroll Cave, near Richland, Missouri; and Reddick, Florida.


title: Dire wolf

text: Localities in Mexico where dire wolf remains have been collected include ElCedazo in Aguascalientes, Comondú Municipality in Baja California Sur, ElCedral in San Luis Potosí, ElTajo Quarry near Tequixquiac, state of Mexico, Valsequillo in Puebla, Lago de Chapala in Jalisco, Loltun Cave in Yucatán, Potrecito in Sinaloa, San Josecito Cave near Aramberri in Nuevo León and Térapa in Sonora. The specimens from Térapa were confirmed as "A.d.guildayi". The finds at San Josecito Cave and ElCedazo have the greatest number of individuals from a single locality.


title: Dire wolf

text: In South America, dire wolves have been dated younger than 17,000 YBP and have been reported from five localities: Muaco in the western Falcón state of Venezuela, Talara Province in Peru, Monagas state in eastern Venezuela, the Tarija Department in Bolivia, and Ecuador. If the dire wolf originated in North America, the species likely dispersed into South America via the Andean corridor, a proposed pathway for temperate mammals to migrate from Central to South America because of the favorable cool, dry, and open habitats that characterized the region at times. This most likely happened during a glacial period because the pathway then consisted of open, arid regions and savanna, whereas during inter-glacial periods it would have consisted of tropical rain forest.


title: Dire wolf

text: In 2020, a fossil mandible from a dire wolf was found in the vicinity of Harbin, northeastern China. The fossil was taxonomically described and dated 40,000 YBP. This discovery challenges previous theories that the cold temperatures and ice sheets at northern latitudes in North America would be a barrier for dire wolves, which was based on no dire wolf fossils being found above the 42° latitude in North America. It is proposed that the dire wolf followed migrating prey from mid-latitude North America then across Beringia into Eurasia.


title: Dire wolf

text: During the Quaternary extinction event around 12,700YBP, 90genera of mammals weighing over became extinct. The extinction of the large carnivores and scavengers is thought to have been caused by the extinction of the megaherbivore prey upon which they depended. The cause of the extinction of the megafauna is debated but has been attributed to the impact of climatic change, competition with other species including overexploitation by newly arrived human hunters, or a combination of both. One study proposes that several extinction models should be investigated because so little is known about the biogeography of the dire wolf and its potential competitors and prey, nor how all these species interacted and responded to the environmental changes that occurred at the time of extinction.