Werewolf V Dire Wolf: The Differences

Here’s one admittedly inspired by the popularity of these creatures thanks to the spectacular success of the Harry Potter and Game of Thrones sagas. During one of my many conversations analysing these stories, my friends and I began wondering who would emerge victorious in a battle; the werewolf or the dire wolf. And then we realised we were not at all sure of the differences between the two. So the quest to find out began.

First and foremost are the historical differences between the two. The werewolf is a mythical creature whose presence has been noted in folklore dating all the way back to ancient Greece. The dire wolf, on the other hand, was a real species that once roamed the face of the Earth.

The werewolf began to gain prominence in European mythology at about the same time as persecution of witches began, from the 14^th century onwards. Indeed, people were actually tried for being werewolves in the same manner they were for being witches. Dire wolves and humans existed side by side for over 6,000 years in the Americas, though there is an argument that the human race led to their extinction.

To be fair to the werewolf, we don’t have any more evidence that they don’t exist than we do that that wizards and warlocks don’t exist. However, since no scientific study has been able to have been done on them, mythology continues to remain our biggest source of information about them. Stories say that the werewolf masquerades as a normal man or woman, changing into a werewolf during a full moon. Some accounts tell us that the werewolf chooses to shape shift, others that werewolves were normal people who were cursed to have to endure this double life.

Even in human form werewolves are said to carry tell-tale signs of what they are. It’s best to be on the lookout for eyebrows which meet in the middle and curved fingernails. After they change into wolf form, most cultures paint the werewolf as indistinguishable from normal wolves aside from having no tail, being larger than the average wolf, and retaining human eyes. The werewolf enjoys devouring humans, and a bite from one can condemn you to the werewolf life.

In contrast, scientists have found enough archaeological evidence of the dire wolf that they have been able to construct skeletons, which give us enormous insight into the size and physical characteristics of the species. The dire wolf existed for around 1.79 million years, becoming extinct 10,000 years ago.

Though the dire wolf was the largest member of the wolf family, it did not reach the proportions portrayed by GRR. Martin’s dire wolves. It could grow to nearly five feet in length, and weighed up to 174lbs. The dire wolf was 25% larger than the average grey wolf, and had bigger teeth. However, despite the dire wolf being physically very similar to the modern grey wolf, it could bite with 129% of the force of its grey cousin. The dire wolf began to die out around 16,000 years ago, unable to compete with the faster grey wolf, the saber tooth tiger, and the climate changes that the newly arrived man may have been imposing.

So there are the differences. One a mythical beast, the other a real Earth dweller. Both bigger than the fearsome-enough wolves we know today, but the werewolf containing a pleasure for preying on humans, whilst the dire wolf armed itself with a strong bite. It’s unlikely the two will ever come head to head, but it would undoubtedly be a close call if they did.

Why Can We Shut Our Eyes But Not Our Ears?

We’ve all been in the position of something or someone warbling incessantly into our ears, frustration mounting with no way to block the noise out. Why is this? Why can we close our eyes and remove anything from our line of vision, and yet be condemned to have to accept listening to the enthralling (for no one but her) tale the lady in front of us on the bus is telling?

Is evolution to blame for the unfair advantage eyes have over ears? Has nature equipped us suitably or cheated us? Is it only us mammals who struggle with this problem?

There appears to be some argument within scientific circles, with one side supporting the theory that we developed the ability to shut our eyes and not our ears as a way to protect us from danger, whilst the other side argues that ideally we would be able to close our ears too, but because it was not necessary for survival our bodies did not achieve this capability. And it seems we are not alone. There is only one lucky member of the animal kingdom able to shut their ears, the grey seal, who can close their ear flaps when they go diving.

Let’s take a closer look at evolution. Nature’s prime concern is our survival, and so it stands to reason that there should be an explanation for this question rooted in keeping us and our ancestors alive. And indeed there is. It is said that babies are born with an instinctual fear of only two things; falling from a height, and loud noises. This makes sense. After all, in our primitive days noise would have been the first thing to alert early man to danger, and if ears are closed that all important alert will be missed. Eyes, on the other hand, are not so good for seeing the initial danger as they are for protection upon waking up after the more vigilant ears respond to noise. Even in today’s world open ears are vital whilst we are sleeping to hear a range of things from smoke alarms to alarm clocks.

So there’s one theory. That our ears must stay open during periods of unconsciousness to keep us from coming to harm. But that doesn’t explain why we do not have the tools to shut our ears consciously, and leave them open at night, the way we can shut our eyes consciously without having to sleep. It is this that is said by some members of the scientific community to be one of Mother Nature’s cock ups. It can be easy to assume, with all the tools evolution has armed the human form with, that our bodies are designed to nature’s optimum ability.

However, this is not thought to be the case. Instead, it is said that nature simply evolved far enough to get us to the point where everything worked well enough, instead of brilliantly. And so, our inability to consciously shut our ears as we can our eyes is the result of the ears working well enough without being able to be shut, whereas our eyes need our eye lids to protect them from harm and keep them clean and moisturised.

So there we go. It might come in extremely useful to shut our ears and block out the innate chatter, the too loud music coming from someone else’s headphones, or the sound of traffic when you’re trying to sleep, but in nature’s view we’re safer not being able to do so.