Vulpes mathisoni, sp. nov., a new fox from the Pliocene Mursi Formation of southern Ethiopia and its contribution to the origin of African foxes

ABSTRACT

We describe here Vulpes mathisoni, sp. nov., a new species of fox from the Mursi Formation of Ethiopia, dated to ca. 4 Ma., based upon a complete cranium with mandible. It is similar in size to V. pallida and resembles this species in several aspects, but the skull is narrower, the muzzle more slender, P4 has a weak protocone, M2 has a large metacone and a distinct, strong metaconule, m1 has a talonid with five distinct cuspids, and m2 has a strong mesial cingulum. Vulpes mathisoni, sp. nov., is probably an early member of a southern Afro-Indian clade that minimally includes V. pallida, V. chama, and V. bengalensis, pushing back its divergence from the Holarctic clade(s) to at least 4 Ma. We observe that, in sharp contrast to the Holarctic realm, the southern Afro-Indian one virtually lacks carnivorous small canids.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:6839D7EC-DE11-431C-AE50-5B1CAFDED9F3

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank C. Bens, J. Lesur-Gebremariam (MNHN), D. Berthet (CCEC), R. Portela-Miguez (NHML), and G. Senishaw (NME) for access to collections in their care, J. Muñoz-Durán for sharing data, P. Vignaud for the cast of V. riffautae, and the editor A. Goswami, A. Hartstone-Rose, and one anonymous reviewer. Funding was provided in part by NSERC grant 262219-2010 to M.S.M.D and by NSF BCS-9817950, and grants from the LSB Leakey Foundation and the National Geographic Society to J.G.F.