Bristol: Fossil evidence reveals how grey wolves adapt diets to climate change

Grey wolves adapt their diets as a result of climate change, eating harder foods such as bones to extract nutrition during warmer climates, new research has found.

The study, led by the University of Bristol in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, and published in Ecology Letters has implications for wolf conservation across Europe and beyond. 

Researchers  compared the teeth of grey wolves from three different time periods using a method known as Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA). 

They examined samples from around 200,000 years ago, a period with summers similar to today but colder winters; from around 125,000 years ago, when summers were warmer than today and winters were milder; and from modern-day wolves in Poland, where winters are becoming warmer and snow cover is declining. 

Using DMTA, the team studied microscopic scratches and pits on wolf molars that record the animal’s diet in the final weeks or months of its life, sometimes called the ‘last supper’ effect. 

“The DMTA results from fossil wolves from the two interglacial periods were very different,” explained co-author Professor Danielle Schreve, Heather Corrie Chair in Environmental Change at the University of Bristol.  

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