Vulpes lagopus

The Arctic fox, also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small species of fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Arctic tundra. It is well adapted to living in cold environments, and is known for its thick, warm fur that can be used as camouflage against snow in the winter. It has a large and fluffy tail. In the wild, most individuals do not live past their first year but some exceptional ones survive up to 11 years. Its body length ranges from 46 to 68 cm, with a generally rounded body shape to minimize the escape of body heat.

Vulpes lagopus

Uncredited · 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
Arctic 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 198 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 210 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 1.4 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pleistocene — about 10 of 45 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 35 of 45 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.3–1.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.1–1.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.0–950 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences950 ka–887 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences887 ka–823 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences823 ka–760 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences760 ka–697 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences697 ka–633 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences633 ka–570 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences570 ka–507 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences507 ka–443 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences443 ka–380 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences380 ka–317 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences317 ka–253 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences253 ka–190 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences190 ka–127 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences127 ka–63 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences63 ka–0 Mya — about 38 occurrences210 ka – 11.7 ka1.9 Mya0 Mya

45 occurrences of Vulpes lagopus on record. 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

45 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

1 formation

Gubik — 70.50°N, 153.50°W

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The named rock units Vulpes lagopus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 44 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

180 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 45 sites for Vulpes lagopus, 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

25 references

Each of the 45 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. 13 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 Vulpes lagopus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Vulpes lagopus lagopus · UCLA:Mammals:15163

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
zmmu
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 itVulpes through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)