The holotype of the Mosbach wolf Canis mosbachensis Soergel, 1925[1] was found in Jockgrim,

Germany. In 2010, a study found that the diversity of the Canis group decreased by the end of
the Early Pleistocene to Middle Pleistocene and was limited in Eurasia to two types of wolves. These
were the small wolves of the C. mosbachensis–C. variabilis group that were a comparable size to
the extant Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes), and the large hypercarnivorous Canis (Xenocyon)
lycaonoides that was comparable in size to extant northern gray wolves.[5]
The Mosbach wolf occurred in time between C. etruscus in the Early Pleistocene and the modern C.
lupus.[4]:p242 The Mosbach wolf was smaller than most North American wolf populations and smaller
than C. rufus,[4]:p242[6] and has been described by Kurten as being similar in size to Canis papilles,
the Indian wolf.[4]:p242[3] As wolves continue to evolve they become bigger. Nowak proposed that C.
mosbachensis was the ancestor of Eurasian and North American wolves, and that one population
of C. mosbachensis invaded North America where it became isolated by the later glaciation and
there gave rise to C. rufus. Another population of C. mosbachensis remained in Eurasia and evolved
into C. lupus, from where it invaded North America.[4]:p242
The true gray wolves made their appearance at the end of the Middle Pleistocene at about 0.5–0.3
million years before present (YBP).[5] The phylogenetic descent of the extant wolf C. lupus from C.
etruscus through C. mosbachensis is widely accepted.[3][4]:239–245 Thenius,[7] Lumley,[8] and Argant[9] each
consider C. mosbachensis to be a subspecies of the gray wolf and propose the designation C. lupus
mosbachensis. However, other researchers cannot see a clear anatomical relationship between C.
mosbachensis and C. etruscus, that C. mosbachensis is more similar to C. arnensis,[10][11][12] and that it
exhibits a size and dentition more similar to an omnivorous