As if Gigantoraptors weren’t enough prehistoric terror for one month, new research tells of bone-crushing wolves.

After analyzing ancient DNA extracted from fossils, scientists discovered that 12,000-year-old Alaskan bones were from an extinct breed of “highly carnivorous” canines. The elder wolves stalked the North American tundra during the late Pleistocene epoch – when a land bridge still stretched out from Russia. Their skulls were wider than today’s wolves, their fangs larger, their bite harder.

“Taken together, these features suggest a wolf specialized for killing and consuming relatively large prey, and also possibly habitual scavenging,” says Jennifer Leonard, the study’s lead author.

They feasted on herds of big game – mammoths, bison, musk oxen – and fended off hoards of fierce competition – lions, bears, saber-tooth tigers. Once a pack cornered its massive prey, over-sized fangs ripped at flesh and gnawed on bone, crushing skeletons so the wolves could munch on the marrow.

Oh – and, yes, they probably came into contact with humans.