Urocyon cinereoargenteus

The gray fox, or grey fox, is an omnivorous mammal of the family Canidae, widespread throughout North America and Central America. This species and its only congener, the diminutive island fox of the California Channel Islands, are the only living members of the genus Urocyon, which is considered to be genetically sister to all other living canids. Its species name cinereoargenteus means "ashen silver".

Urocyon cinereoargenteus

VJAnderson · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
gray foxPBDB
Sits inside
UrocyonPBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Canidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Urocyon
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
86 gWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 1.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 42 occurrencesPleistocene — about 37 of 42 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 5 of 42 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 7 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 25 occurrences1.8 Mya11.7 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

42 occurrences of Urocyon cinereoargenteus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

42 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

5 formations

Crooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WTacubaya — 21.80°N, 102.30°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WSilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Urocyon cinereoargenteus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 37 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Urocyon cinereoargenteus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Urocyon cinereoargenteus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

889 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 40 sites for Urocyon cinereoargenteus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

35 references

Each of the 42 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 23 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Urocyon cinereoargenteus

Credit
VJAnderson
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itUrocyon through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Schreber 1775)