Urocyon

Urocyon is a genus of Canidae which includes the gray fox and the island fox. These two fox species are found in the Western Hemisphere. Whole genome sequencing indicates that, among living canids, Urocyon is sister to the remaining genera. Fossils of what is believed to be the ancestor of the gray fox, Urocyon progressus, have been found in Kansas and date to the Upper Pliocene, with some undescribed specimens dating even older.

Urocyon

VJAnderson USFWS Pacific Southwest Region · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
gray foxPBDB
Sits inside
VulpiniPBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Canidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 9.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 9.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 12.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 2 of 66 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 66 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 52 of 66 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 7 of 66 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–10.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10.0–9.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.5–9.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.1–8.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.7–8.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.2–7.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.4–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.1–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.2–4.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.8–4.3 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences4.3–3.9 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences3.9–3.5 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences3.5–3.0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences2.6–2.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.2–1.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.7–1.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.3–867 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences867 ka–433 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences433 ka–0 Mya — about 43 occurrences9.4 Mya11.7 ka13 Mya0 Mya

66 occurrences of Urocyon on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

66 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

11 formations

Palm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WLove — 31.50°N, 105.20°WTacubaya — 21.80°N, 102.30°WLa Habra — 33.60°N, 117.80°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WSilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WBacons Castle — 38.16°N, 76.83°W

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The named rock units Urocyon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 54 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Urocyon and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Urocyon and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,229 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 64 sites for Urocyon, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

48 references

Each of the 66 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 36 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Urocyon

Credit
VJAnderson USFWS Pacific Southwest Region
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Urocyon californicus · UCMP:V:12263

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itVulpini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Baird 1857