Dear Elizabeth,
 
As a general rule the length of the upper carnassial in wolves exceeds the sum of the lengths of the two molars, while in dogs the summed molar lengths exceed or are equal to the length of the carnassial

(Clutton-Brock, J. 1963:  The origins of the dog.  In D. Brothwell and E. Higgs (eds) Science  In Archaeology, 269-274 .London, Thames and Hudson). 

 

Two papers on possible prehistoric dog/wolf hybrids where this is not the case are:

 

Clark, K.M. 1996. Neolithic Dogs: A Reappraisal Based on Evidence from the Remains of a Large Canid Deposited in a Ritual Feature. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 6: 211-219.

 

Baxter, I.L. 2007. Skeleton of a large Early-Middle Bronze Age dog with spondylosis deformans from the Babraham Road Park and Ride site, Cambridge. Archaeofauna 16: 109-116.  (.PDF available for download at http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/icaz/icazForum/viewtopic.php?t=1039).

 

All wild canids (and some domestic dogs) exhibit klinorhynchy (downturning of the anterior skull relative to the basicranium). This is discussed in:

 
Baxter, I.L. and Nussbaumer, M. 2009.  Evidence of variation in an Iron Age dog cranium from Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, UK. Archaeofauna 18: 67-76. http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/icaz/pdf/05_ARCH_VOL_18.pdf
 

Nussbaumer, M., 1982. Über die Variabilität der dorso-basalen Schädelknickungen bei Haushunden (On the Variability of Dorso-basal Curvatures in Skulls of Domestic Dogs). Zool. Anz., Jena 209 (1/2): 1-32.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Ian L. Baxter
 
In a message dated 27/05/2014 22:44:32 GMT Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes:

Does anyone know of any morphological characteristics for differentiating wolf, dog, and coyote? I know wolves are generally bigger than dogs but I have a skull that is fairly large but some modern dog breeds are fairly large and could overlap in size with wolf so I’m looking for something besides just size to use. Thanks.

Elizabeth

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Dr. Elizabeth Moore

Curator of Archaeology

Virginia Museum of Natural History

Martinsville, VA  24112

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