If you thought dire wolves were the stuff of Game of Thrones lore, you're not alone. It's an assumption George R. R. Martin himself repeatedly needs to correct.

"You'd be surprised at how many people seem to think I invented the dire wolf," he tells Rolling Stone. "Much as I would love to take credit for that, it's just not so. Dire wolves were real, one of the apex predators of the Ice Age."

Here's some video of the pups: