A new species of fox from the Australopithecus sediba type locality, Malapa, South Africa

ABSTRACT

The 1.977 Ma site of ‘Malapa’ (Gauteng, South Africa) has yielded important new fossils, including the type specimens of the new hominin species Australopithecus sediba. Recently, we reported the first Carnivora specimens to have been recovered from the site. That sample included members of Felidae, Herpestidae and Hyaenidae. That first report also included three associated small canid specimens (an M₂, a rib and a posterior mandibular fragment including the P₄, M₁, coronoid, condylar and angular processes) that we attributed to Vulpes cf. V. chama. In this paper, we compare these specimens to a broad sample of modern and fossil foxes and conclude that these specimens are distinct enough to be referred to a new species, here described and named Vulpes skinneri.

Keywords:

• Mammalia
• Carnivora
• Canidae
• Vulpes
• Australopithecus sediba
• Pliocene
• Pleistocene
• South Africa

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank Kristen MacNeill and Amanda Heckler of Pennsylvania State University, Stephany Potze, Teresa Kearney and Shaw Badenhorst of the Ditsong Museum of Natural History, and Bernhard Zipfel of the University of the Witwatersrand. We would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers who provided highly valuable suggestions and insights. AHR is funded by Pennsylvania State University. LW is funded by the Swedish Research Council. The following institutions and many individual sponsors all provided funding for the excavations and research conducted at Malapa: The Gauteng Provincial Government, South African Department of Science and Technology, the South African National Research Foundation, the University of the Witwatersrand, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Africa Array Program, the United States Diplomatic Mission to South Africa, the National Geographic Society. The Nash family generously provides access to the site.