The tween-girl swoon fest that is "Twilight" featured a sensitive, hipster, prom-attending vampire (Robert Pattinson) battling it out with his grungy, more bloodthirsty cousins. The "Twilight" sequel, "New Moon," due in theaters on November 20, introduces a much more interesting creature into the sexy-monster mix: the werewolf.

While werewolves have been caught in embarrassing cinematic positions before (hello, "Teen Wolf"), here's some true werewolf factoids to distract your date with while she's still caught up in the treacly "New Moon" afterglow:

Werewolves have been part of our literary history for 2,500 years -- back when the Greek historian Herodotus recorded a strange tribe of folks who turned into wolves every nine years. The idea of the modern vampire -- a human being rising from the dead to drink the blood of the living -- wasn't popularized until a good 2,200 to 2,300 years later. Take that, Bram Stoker.
  • While the modern vampire hysteria may have begun with disease-ridden peasants, the werewolf myth has a much more real and dangerous origin. Until the last century, wolves were a predator to be taken seriously, and it's reasonable to believe that people projected their fears of a very possible wolf attack onto the idea of a werewolf -- literally, a sneaky killer within their own pack.


Unlike vampires, who needed to be "infected" by another vampire, many werewolves were said to create their own destiny, occasionally making pacts with the devil. When it was time to go lupine, they slept outside during a full moon, turned to herbal salves, or wrapped themselves in wolf skins. Researchers suspect these magic "salves" contained ingredients like belladonna or ergot (which contains LSD). The hallucinogenic effects of these ingredients can mimic rabies -- and, supposedly, snarling, wolf-like behavior -- until the acid trip wore off.

Some people have unsuccessfully tried to pass off a rare disorder called porphyria as "the vampire" disease, but there's actually a scientific condition called clinical lycanthropy that makes people believe that they've turned into wolves. Then there's hypertrichosis, a really unfortunate disorder that simply makes you look like a wolf.

In countries that are unlucky enough not to have wolves, the werewolf myth easily adapts itself. Outside of Europe and North America, people transform into weretigers and werehyenas; in Nigeria, weregoats steal cars. Regardless of whether you're in Albania or Zaire, a vampire is simply someone who's risen from the dead to drink your blood.

So suck it, Pattinson -- werewolves make their own schedules, drop acid and jack Hyundais. Did I also mention that they're easily identifiable by their hairy palms?

Got any other reasons werewolves are more badass than vampires?