A remarkably well-preserved skeleton of a red fox, dating back 26,000 years, has been discovered in Whiterocks Cave, Utah. This ancient find provides valuable insights into the history and distribution of red foxes in North America.
A nearly complete skeleton of a red fox dating back to the Ice Age s has been unearthed in a northeastern Utah cave. A team of scientists from the Utah Division of State Parks and the USDA Forest Service Ashley National Forest, along with a group of Utah cavers, made the discovery in Whiterocks Cave in the Uinta Mountains at about 8,600 feet elevation. This specimen is one of the oldest directly dated records of the red fox species, the first in Utah , but among the oldest in North America.
Radiocarbon dating revealed that the fox skeleton is about 26,000 years old, meaning it was already in the cave long before humans started farming and even before the Great Pyramids of Giza were built. It was a gorgeous specimen, almost the entire animal lying where it had been for so long, nearly every bone intact and well preserved. We don’t often see specimens like that. According to Utah wildlife officials, red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) are the most widely distributed terrestrial carnivores in the world. They appeared in North America from Eurasia between 300,000 and 130,000 years ago. Since then, most red foxes in North America have lived in the western and northern parts of the continent. The remains were found in a remote section of the cave’s back, partially articulated and lying on its left side, Utah State Parks said. It was given the name ‘Roxy’ following a museum-wide poll.Utah Field House of Natural History scientists Ida Dirkes, Tyson Ferriera and John Foster snapped a selfie on their journey to the cave. The team of paleontologists said they were unsure how the fox ended up so deep inside the cave
ICE AGE RED FOX SKELETON UTAH CAVE
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