Jan.
23, 2013 — Researchers from Wits University, the University of
Johannesburg and international scientists have announced the discovery of a
2-million-year-old fossil fox at Malapa, South Africa, in the Cradle of
Humankind World Heritage Site.
In
an article published in the journal Transactions
of the Royal Society of South Africa, the researchers describe the
previously unknown species of fox named Vulpes Skinneri -- named in
honour of the recently deceased world renowned South African mammalogist and
ecologist, Prof. John Skinner of the University of Pretoria.
The
site of Malapa has, since its discovery in 2008, yielded one of the most
extraordinary fossil assemblages in the African record, including skeletons of
a new species of human ancestor named Australopithecus
sediba, first described in 2010.
The
new fox fossils consist of a mandible and parts of the skeleton and can be
distinguished from any living or extinct form of fox known to science based on
proportions of its teeth and other aspects of its anatomy.
Dr.
Brian Kuhn of Wits' Institute for Human Evolution (IHE) and the School of
GeoSciences, an author on the paper and head of the Malapa carnivore studies
explains: "It's exciting to see a new fossil fox. The ancestry of foxes is
perhaps the most poorly known among African carnivores and to see a potential
ancestral form of living foxes is wonderful."
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