Watch to discover the largest wolf species in the world, including an analysis of their average weights and how large they can potentially grow. AZ Animals (US) The Largest Wolf Species on Earth.

While the dire wolf is one of the most notable, and popular, giant canines, it's not the largest. Instead, the largest wolf to exist was much, much bigger.

Yet, even the largest dire wolf would pale in comparison to Epicyon haydeni. This colossal canine, whose very name translates to “more than a dog”, truly lived up to its epic monker, ...

For context, the gray wolf—the closest living relative of the dire wolf—has a genome of about 2.45 billion base pairs (the fundamental building blocks of DNA).

Based on the sequence of two new dire wolf genomes, the researchers at Colossal conclude that dire wolves formed a distinct branch within the canids over 2.5 million years ago.