Urocyon littoralis

The island fox is a small fox species that is endemic to six of the eight Channel Islands of California. They evolved from their larger mainland gray fox ancestor and have diversified into six subspecies, each confined to its own island and all exhibiting insular dwarfism. Island foxes are generally docile, show little fear of humans, and are easily tamed. Island foxes have played an important role in the spiritual lives of native Channel Islanders. They were likely semi-domesticated as pets, for their pelts, or other functions, like pest control. Genetic and archaeological evidence suggests that the foxes arrived on the islands around 7,000 years ago, probably with the assistance of early human populations.

Urocyon littoralis

Pacific Southwest Region USFWS from Sacramento, US · CC BY 2.0 · 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
island gray foxPBDB
Sits inside
UrocyonPBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Canidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Urocyon
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 210 thousand years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 210 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pleistocene — about 1 of 3 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 2 of 3 occurrences213 ka–189 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences189 ka–166 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences166 ka–142 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences142 ka–118 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences118 ka–95 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences95 ka–71 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences71 ka–47 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47 ka–24 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences710 ka0 Mya

3 occurrences of Urocyon littoralis on record, most of them in the Holocene. 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

3 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.

Urocyon littoralis and its relatives

Holocene

Where Urocyon littoralis and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.

Found in the same rock

44 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Urocyon littoralis, 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

1 reference

Each of the 3 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Urocyon littoralis

Credit
Pacific Southwest Region USFWS from Sacramento, US
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itUrocyon through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on

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