You might be the most familiar with dire wolves from George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones. The story depicts them as mythical beasts the size of a small horse. That mythical beast is inspired by a real creature that lived during the ice age. Also commonly called a dire wolf, Canis dirus lived up until about 10,000 years ago. But it was a little more modest than the mythical dire wolf from the Game of Thrones series. They were only twice the size of a German shepherd, and as it turns out, aren’t even wolves.