Canis edwardii
| Edward's wolf Temporal range: Blancan–Irvingtonian |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Canidae |
| Genus: | Canis |
| Species: | †C. edwardii |
| Binomial name | |
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†Canis edwardii Gazin, 1942 |
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Canis edwardii (Edward's wolf) is an extinct species of genus Canis which was endemic to most of North America from the Late Blancan stage of the Pliocene epoch through to the Irvingtonian stage of the epoch, living 2.3 Mya—300,000 years ago, existing for approximately 2 million years.
It was contemporaneous with the dire wolf (125,000—9,440 years ago), Canis lepophagus (10.3—1.8 Ma), Armbruster's wolf (1.8 Mya—300,000 years ago), Canis rufus (1-2 Ma-present), and the gray wolf (2.5 Ma—present).
Canis edwardii was named by Gazin in 1942.
Xiaoming Wang and Richard H. Tedford proposed that the genus Canis was the descendant of the coyote-like Eucyon davisi and its remains first appeared in the Miocene (6 million YBP) in south-western USA and Mexico. By the Pliocene (5 million YBP), the larger Canis lepophagus appeared in the same region and by the (1 million YBP) Canis latrans (the Coyote) was in existence. They proposed that the progression from Eucyon davisi to C lepophagus to the Coyote was linear evolution. Additionally, C. edwardii, C. latrans and C. aureus form together a small clade and because C. edwardii appeared earliest spanning the mid-Blancan (late Pliocene) to the close of the Irvingtonian (late Pleistocene) it is proposed as the ancestor.
Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene in North America. The first definite wolf appeared in the Late Blancan/Early Irvingtonian, and named C. priscolatrans that was either very close to or a synonym for Canis edwardii. It resembled C. rufus in cranial size and proportions but with more complex dentition. However, there are no fossils of C. rufus until the Late Rancholabrean.
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