Dusicyon avus

Dusicyon avus is an extinct species of canid in the genus Dusicyon. It was medium to large, about the size of a German shepherd.[2] Its scientific name means "ancestor of the foolish dog". It was closely related to the warrah or Falkland Islands wolf, and was the ancestral species from which it diverged.[3] It appears to have survived until very recently, perhaps 400 years ago.

Dusicyon avus
Temporal range: Late Pleistocene (Lujanian)-Holocene
~0.78–0.0004 Ma
↓
Stuffed specimen of the warrah, of which D. avus was ancestral and morphologically similar
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Genus: †Dusicyon
Species:
†D. avus
Binomial name
†Dusicyon avus
Synonyms
  • Canis avus
  • Canis platensis Mercerat 1891

Range

D. avus range extended through the Pampas and Patagonia in the south-central and southern parts of South America, with an estimated range of around 762 351 km². Its fossils have been found in the Luján Formation of Argentina, the Chui Formation of Brazil, the Milodón Cave in Chile and the Sopas Formation of Uruguay.[4]

Diet and Ecology

Its diet seems to have been more carnivorous than extant foxes based on δ13C and δ15N values, probably mostly preying on small mammals but also scavenging on large carcasses.[5] This is in contrast the warrah, whose diet was restricted to the seabirds available on the Falkland Islands. Morphologically, D. avus and D. australis are most similar to jackals, suggesting a similar ecological niche.[6]

Relationship to humans

A grave of the late second millennium BCE at Loma de los Muertos in General Conesa, Río Negro Argentina contains a sub-adult D. avus, buried in a human mortuary context in a comparable manner to adjacent human burials. It may have been kept as a pet and been considered part of the human social group.[7]

Extinction

Dating of extinction

Dusicyon avus according to earlier estimates became extinct around 1000 BCE.,[8] possibilities that it became extinct as recently as 500 – 300 years BP.[1] Recent research confirms more recent dates, with the last appearance datum in the Pampean Region being 700 BP (1232–1397 AD) and southernmost Patagonia at 400 years BP (1454–1626 AD).[9]

Charles Darwin in The Voyage of the Beagle stated that "many sealers, Gauchos, and Indians, who have visited these islands [the Falklands], all maintain that no such animal [the warrah] is found in any part of South America" suggesting that it was unlikely to have been alive at this time. It is possible, but as yet unproven, that some populations of D. avus may have persisted until the time of European contact. Forty years before the introduction of the gray fox on Tierra del Fuego, there are some ethnographic references to the existence of two species of foxes there. Around 1900, the indigenous Ona were recorded as recognizing two varieties of foxes, one of which grew to unusual size.[10] If the "big fox" was D. avus, this would indicate that it survived until the 20th century, at least in this location.[11] In 1871 George Musters wrote a description of encountering a fox in Patagonia similar to a warrah, which may have been an account of this species.[12]

Reasons for extinction

The extinction of D. avus as opposed to the naive D. australis is mysterious, as there is no clear reason why a generalist, unspecialised predator with a small body size would go extinct, especially at such a late date after the Quaternary extinction event. There is no compelling evidence that climatic change was the cause of the extinction, nor any evidence that hybridisation with domestic dogs was the cause, as the skull morphology and DNA is consistent from the Late Pleistocene through the Holocene.[9] Dusicyon was used for ritual purposes by aboriginal peoples in the Late Holocene, and appears to have a high symbolic value[13] and its remains, usually teeth are found in many archaeological sites.[14] D. avus, despite its wide range, has a low genetic diversity in tested samples, suggesting a possible low population or genetic bottleneck before extinction.[3][9]

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References
  1. Sillero-Zubiri, C. (2015). "Dusicyon avus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2015: e.T82337482A82337485. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-4.RLTS.T82337482A82337485.en.
  2. http://eol.org/data_objects/32421837
  3. Austin, Jeremy J.; Soubrier, Julien; Prevosti, Francisco J.; Prates, Luciano; Trejo, Valentina; Mena, Francisco; Cooper, Alan (2013). "The origins of the enigmatic Falkland Islands wolf". Nature Communications. 4: 1552. Bibcode:2013NatCo...4.1552A. doi:10.1038/ncomms2570. PMID 23462995. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  4. Dusicyon avus at Fossilworks.org
  5. Prevosti, Francisco J.; Martin, Fabiana M. (August 2013). "Paleoecology of the mammalian predator guild of Southern Patagonia during the latest Pleistocene: Ecomorphology, stable isotopes, and taphonomy". Quaternary International. 305: 74–84. Bibcode:2013QuInt.305...74P. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.12.039. ISSN 1040-6182.
  6. Meloro, Carlo; Hunter, Jonathan; Tomsett, Louise; Portela Miguez, Roberto; Prevosti, Francisco J.; Brown, Richard P. (April 2017). "Evolutionary ecomorphology of the Falkland Islands wolf Dusicyon australis" (PDF). Mammal Review. 47 (2): 159–163. doi:10.1111/mam.12085.
  7. Luciano Prates. Crossing the boundary between humans and animals: the extinct fox Dusicyon avus from a hunter-gatherer mortuary context in Patagonia (Argentina). Antiquity 88/342, 1201–1212. http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/088/ant0881201.htm
  8. F.J. Prevosti et al., 2011. Constraining the time of extinction of the South American fox Dusicyon avus (Carnivora, Canidae) during the late Holocene. Quaternary International 245/2, 209-217.
  9. Prevosti, Francisco J.; Ramírez, Mariano A.; Schiaffini, Mauro; Martin, Fabiana; Udrizar Sauthier, Daniel E.; Carrera, Marcelo; Sillero-Zubiri, Claudio; Pardiñas, Ulyses F. J. (November 2015). "Extinctions in near time: new radiocarbon dates point to a very recent disappearance of the South American fox Dusicyon avus (Carnivora: Canidae)". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 116 (3): 704–720. doi:10.1111/bij.12625.
  10. C.R. Gallardo, Los onas. Cabault y Cia, Buenos Aires (1910)
  11. The elusive evidence: the archaeological record of the South American extinct megafauna. American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene, en: Haynes, G. (Ed.) Springer, Amsterdam
  12. Musters GC 1871 At home with the Patagonians (a year's wanderings over untrodden ground from the Straits of Magellan to the Rio Negro London John Murray, Albemarle Street.
  13. Bonomo M 2006 Un acercamiento a la dimensión simbólica de la cultura material en la Región Pampeana Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropología 31: 89–115 .
  14. "PaleoArgentina. Periodo Holoceno". Retrieved 2 October 2014.
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