Claim: The gray wolf as a species goes back at least 11,700 years.
Evidence: It is the only species of Canis to have a range encompassing both the Old and New Worlds , and originated in Eurasia during the Pleistocene , colonizing North America on at least three separate occasions during the Rancholabrean.
The Pleistocene -LRB- -LSB- pronˈplaɪstəˌsiːn , _ - toʊ - -RSB- , often colloquially referred to as the Ice Age -RRB- is the geological epoch which lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago , spanning the world 's most recent period of repeated glaciations.