Vulpes qiuzhudingi
The ancestral Arctic fox Vulpes qiuzhudingi is an extinct species of fox found in the Himalayas.[2] It was primarily carnivorous.[3] The fossils, dating from between 5.08 and 3.60 million years ago, were found in the Zanda Basin and Kunlun Mountains of Tibet.[4] It was named after Qiu Zhuding, a paleontologist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.[3] The species is believed to be the ancestor of Vulpes lagopus, the modern Arctic fox, which would support the "Out of Tibet" theory: namely, that a number of current arctic species trace their ancestry to species originally from the Tibetan Plateau.[5]
| Vulpes qiuzhudingi | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Canidae |
| Genus: | Vulpes |
| Species: | †V. qiuzhudingi |
| Binomial name | |
| †Vulpes qiuzhudingi | |
References
- Wang, Xiaoming; Tseng, Zhijie Jack; Li, Qiang; Takeuchi, Gary T.; Xie, Guangpu (11 June 2014). "From 'third pole' to north pole: a Himalayan origin for the arctic fox". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Royal Society. 281 (1787): 20140893. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.0893. PMC 4071559. PMID 24920475.
- Wang, Xiaoming (2015). "Cenozoic vertebrate evolution and paleoenvironment in Tibetan Plateau: Progress and prospects". Gondwana Research. 4 (27): 1335–1354. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2014.10.014.
- Jane Qiu (11 June 2014). "Origins of Arctic fox traced back to Tibet". Nature. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
- Christine Dell'Amore (10 June 2014). "An extinct species of "very carnivorous" fox with supersharp teeth once roamed the frigid Tibetan Plateau, a new study says". National Geographic. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
- ""Out of Tibet" hypothesis: Cradle of evolution for cold-adapted mammals is in Tibet". National Science Foundation. June 11, 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
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