Vulpes chama
The Cape fox, also called the asse, cama fox or the silver-backed fox, is a small species of fox, native to southern Africa. It is the only "true fox" occurring in sub-Saharan Africa, and it retains primitive characteristics of Vulpes because it diverged early in the evolutionary history of the group.
Yathin S Krishnappa · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
- Cape foxPBDB
- Sits inside
- VulpesPBDB
- Diet
- carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Vulpes
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Vulpes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 762 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 774 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 0 Mya.
21 occurrences of Vulpes chama 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
21 occurrences- Pliocene1%
- Pleistocene61%
- Holocene38%
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
3 formations
- Nubia Formation2
- Swartkrans Formation · Transvaal Group1
- Kromdraai Formation1
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The named rock units Vulpes chama has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Vulpes chama and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Vulpes chama and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
192 taxa- Raphicerus campestris13 sites
- Bovidae12 sites
- Felis lybica11 sites
- Hystrix africaeaustralis10 sites
- Leporidae10 sites
- Procavia capensis10 sites
- Alcelaphus buselaphus9 sites
- Connochaetes gnou9 sites
- Equus quagga9 sites
- Equus quagga burchelli9 sites
- Oreotragus oreotragus9 sites
- Panthera pardus9 sites
- Papio ursinus9 sites
- Lupulella mesomelas8 sites
- Pelea capreolus8 sites
- Taurotragus oryx8 sites
- Antidorcas marsupialis7 sites
- Cynictis penicillata7 sites
- Mellivora capensis7 sites
- Panthera leo7 sites
- Redunca arundinum7 sites
- Redunca fulvorufula7 sites
- Equus capensis6 sites
- Herpestes ichneumon6 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Vulpes chama, 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
16 references- Paleoenvironmental and Cultural Implications of Late Holocene Archaeological Faunas from the Orange Free State and North Central Cape Province, South Africa4
- Macromammalian faunas, biochronology and palaeoecology of the early Pleistocene Main Quarry hominin-bearing deposits of the Drimolen Palaeocave System, South Africa2
- Wendorf and Schild, 19802
- A new canid species (Carnivora: Canidae) from the Plio-Pleistocene hominin-bearing site of Kromdraai (Cradle of Humankind, Gauteng, South Africa)1
- The Middle and Later Stone Age faunal remains from Diepkloof Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa1
- Middle and later Stone Age large mammal and tortoise remains from Die Kelders Cave 1, Western Cape Province, South Africa1
- Paleoenvironmental and Human Behavioral Implications of the Boegoeberg 1 Late Pleistocene Hyena Den, Northern Cape Province, South Africa1
- Late Pleisticene Humans Remains from the Sea Harvest Site, Saldanha Bay, South Africa1
- Environmental, Ecological and Paleoanthropological Implications of the Late Pleistocene Mammalian Fauna from Equus Cave, Northern Cape Province, South Africa1
- Re-Analysis of Faunal Assemblages from the Haua Fteah and other Late Quaternary Archaeological Site in Cyrenaican Libya1
- Palaeoecology of the Pliocene and lower Pleistocene hominids of southern Africa: how good is the chronological and paleoenvironmental evidence?1
- Paleoanthropological Implications of the Non-Archaeological Bone Assemblages from Swartklip 1, South-Western Cape Province, South Africa1
Each of the 21 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. 4 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 content2
Picture of Vulpes chama
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Yathin S Krishnappa
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Structured light scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Vulpes chama · FMNH:Mammals:85881
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Cape fox”
- 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 itVulpes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Smith 1833)