section_path: Range
section_name: Range
paragraph_text: Range
  
  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 possibly the steppes of eastern Asia. The sites range in elevation from sea level to 2,255 m (7,400 ft). 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, with the northernmost record in southern Canada.
  
  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°N latitude at Fossil Lake, Oregon (125,000–10,000 YBP), American Falls Reservoir, Idaho (125,000–75,000 YBP), Salamander Cave, South Dakota (250,000 YBP), and four closely grouped sites in northern Nebraska (250,000 YBP). 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.
  
  Localities in Mexico where dire wolf remains have been collected include El Cedazo in Aguascalientes, Comondú Municipality in Baja California Sur, El Cedral in San Luis Potosí, El Tajo 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 El Cedazo have the greatest number of individuals from a single locality.
  
  In South America, dire wolves have been dated younger than 17,000 YBP and have been reported from six localities: Muaco in the western Falcón state of Venezuela, Talara Province in Peru, Monagas state in eastern Venezuela, the Tarija Department in Bolivia, Atacama Desert of Chile, 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.
  
  In 2020, a fossil mandible (IVPP V25381) later analyzed as a dire wolf's 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. However, the 2022 study argued that the morphology and size of the specimen is inconclusive for its taxonomic determination as a dire wolf.