The Texas gray wolf (''Canis lupus monstrabilis'') is an extinct subspecies of gray wolf, distinct from the Texas red wolf (''Canis rufus rufus''), whose range once included southern and western

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

and northeastern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Taxonomy

It is recognized as a subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' in the taxonomic authority ''

Mammal Species of the World ''Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference'' is a standard reference work in mammalogy giving descriptions and Bibliographic database, bibliographic data for the known species of mammals. It is now in its third edition, ...

(2005)''. The subspecies' name means "remarkable, noteworthy" in Latin, and derives from the verb (to show) and the suffix (worthy of).

Description

It was darker than its more northern cousins, and has a highly arched

frontal bone In the human skull, the frontal bone or sincipital bone is an unpaired bone which consists of two portions.'' Gray's Anatomy'' (1918) These are the vertically oriented squamous part, and the horizontally oriented orbital part, making up the bo ...

.Glover, A. (1942)
''Extinct and vanishing mammals of the western hemisphere, with the marine species of all the oceans''
American Committee for International Wild Life Protection, pp. 218-219. The Texas grey wolf's weight ranged from 34 to 45 kg (75 to 100 lb).

Extinction

This wolf's prey were driven to extirpation in its habitat, leading it to hunt farmer's livestock. The last known Texas gray wolf was killed April 12, 1942, by Nelson Elliot on the Cleavland Ranch. This led the

Mexican wolf The Mexican wolf (''Canis lupus baileyi''), also known as the ''lobo mexicano'' (or, simply, ''lobo'') is a subspecies of gray wolf (''C. lupus'') native to eastern and southeastern Arizona and western and southern New Mexico (in the United Sta ...

as to become the last gray wolf subspecies in Texas, though they were extirpated in 1970.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q718137 Extinct subspecies of Canis lupus Wolves in the United States Extinct animals of the United States Extinct animals of Mexico Mammals described in 1937 Taxa named by Edward Alphonso Goldman Species made extinct by deliberate extirpation efforts