Canis lupus spelaeus Goldfuss, 1823

Cave wolf, Don wolf (as C. l. brevis)

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Synonym/s: Canis lupus brevis (Kuzmina, 1994)

Conservation Status

Extinct

Last record: Late Pleistocene

Distribution

Europe

Biology & Ecology

Hypodigm

Media

References

Original scientific description:

Goldfuss, G. A. (1823). "5-Ueber den Hölenwolf (Canis spelaeus) (About the Cave wolf)". Osteologische Beiträge zur Kenntniss verschiedener Säugethiere der Vorwelt (Osteological contributions to different knowledge Beast of the ancients). 3. Nova Acta Physico-Medica Academiea Caesarae Leopoldino-Carolinae Naturae Curiosorum. pp. 451-455.

Other references:

Kuzmina, I. E. and Sablin, M. V. (1994). Wolf Canis lupus L. from the Late Paleolithic sites Kostenki on the Don River. Trudy Zoologicheskogo Instituta (256): 44-58. [In Russian]

Lemoine, Rhys Taylor, Buitenwerf, Robert, Faurby, Sören and Svenning, Jens-Christian. (2025). Phylogenetic Evidence Supports the Effect of Traits on Late-Quaternary Megafauna Extinction in the Context of Human Activity. Global Ecology and Biogeography 34(7): e70078. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.70078 [Supporting Information: Data S1]

Marciszak, Adrian, Gornig, Wiktoria and Kropczyk, Aleksandra. (2021). Radochowska Cave (Sudety Mts, SW Poland) – one of the European caves with a bear cult?, pp. 62-63. In: Ratajczak-Skrzatek U., Kovalchuk O., Stefaniak K. (eds.). Proceedings of INQUA SEQS 2021 Conference, Wrocław, Poland. University of Wrocław & Polish Geological Society. 119 pp.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_wolf

http://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/23166/canis-lupus-spelaeus-cave-wolf