Unrecorded Fox Fossil Discovered at Malapa Site

A two million year old fox fossil was unearthed by archeologists from the well-known archeological site of Malapa in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site. The fossil belongs to a new species that was unknown earlier.

The previously unknown fossil was named Vulpes Skinneri after a professor of the University of Pretoria John Skinner, who is a world-renowned South African mammalogist and ecologist.

Extraordinary fossils have been yielded from the Malapa archeological site, which includes the discovery of a new human species named Australopithecus sediba in 2008.

The new fox fossil, showing traces of mandible and parts of skeleton, is second in the lead to be the most extraordinary fossil. By analyzing the proportions of its teeth and other aspects of its structure, they conclude it is very different from the living or extinct forms of fox.

"It's exciting to see a new fossil fox. The ancestry of foxes is perhaps the most poorly known among African carnivores and to see a potential ancestral form of living foxes is wonderful," Dr. Brian Kuhn of Wits' Institute for Human Evolution (IHE) and the School of GeoSciences, an author of the paper and head of the Malapa carnivore studies, said in press statement.

Malapa provides strange records of past life that is crucial, as the human ancestors originate from there. Such fossils throw light on the evolution of modern African mammals, says professor Lee Berger, author of the study and director of the Malapa Project.

The findings have been published in the journal Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa.