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The South American foxes (''Lycalopex''), commonly called ''raposa'' in Portuguese, or ''zorro'' in Spanish, are a
genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial no ...
from South America of the subfamily
Caninae The Caninae, known as canines, are one of three subfamilies found within the canid family. The other two canid subfamilies are the extinct Borophaginae and Hesperocyoninae. The Caninae includes all living canids and their most recent fossil rel ...
. Despite their name, they are not true foxes, but are a unique canid genus more closely related to wolves and jackals than to true foxes; some of them resemble foxes due to
convergent evolution Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last com ...
. The
South American gray fox The South American gray fox (''Lycalopex griseus''), also known as the Patagonian fox, the chilla or the gray zorro, is a species of '' Lycalopex'', the "false" foxes. It is endemic to the southern part of South America. Description The South ...
, ''Lycalopex griseus'', is the most common species, and is known for its large ears and a highly marketable, russet-fringed pelt. The second-oldest known fossils belonging to the genus were discovered in
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
, and date from 2.0 to 2.5 million years ago, in the mid- to late
Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Vorohué Formation of Argentina has provided older fossils, dating to the
Uquian The Uquian age is a period of geologic time (3.0–1.5 Ma) within the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs of the Neogene used more specifically with South American Land Mammal Ages. It follows the Montehermosan and precedes the Ensenadan The Ense ...
to Ensenadan (Late Pliocene).Vorohuen (sic; Vorohué) Formation
at
Fossilworks Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database, a large relational database assembled by hundreds of paleontologists from around the world. History Fossilworks was crea ...
.org


Names

The common English word "zorro" is a loan word from Spanish, with the word originally meaning "fox". Current usage lists ''Pseudalopex'' (literally: "false fox") as synonymous with ''Lycalopex'' ("wolf fox"), with the latter taking precedence. In 1895, Allen classified ''Pseudalopex'' as a
subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...
of ''
Canis ''Canis'' is a genus of the Caninae which includes multiple extant taxon, extant species, such as Wolf, wolves, dogs, coyotes, and golden jackals. Species of this genus are distinguished by their moderate to large size, their massive, well-devel ...
'', establishing the combination ''Canis (Pseudalopex)'', a name still used in the fossil record.


Species

Species currently included in this genus include: In 1914, Oldfield Thomas established the genus ''
Dusicyon ''Dusicyon'' is an extinct genus of South American canids. The type species is ''Dusicyon australis'', the Falkland Islands wolf. In 1914, Oldfield Thomas established this genus, in which he included the culpeo and other South American foxes. ...
'', in which he included these zorros. They were later reclassified to ''Lycalopex'' (via ''Pseudalopex'') by Langguth in 1975.


Phylogeny

The following phylogenetic tree shows the evolutionary relationships between the ''Lycalopex'' species, based on molecular analysis of mitochondrial DNA control region sequences.


Relationship with humans

The zorros are hunted in
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
for their durable, soft pelts. They are also often labelled 'lamb-killers'. The ''
Fuegian dog The Fuegian dog ( es, perro yagán, perro fueguino), also known as the Yahgan dog, is an extinct domesticated canid. It was a domesticated form of the culpeo (''Lycalopex culpaeus''). The culpeo is similar in build to true foxes (tribe Vulpini) ...
'' ( es, perro yagán, perro fueguino), also known as the Yaghan dog, was a domesticated form of the
culpeo The culpeo (''Lycalopex culpaeus''), also known as culpeo zorro, Andean zorro, Andean fox, Paramo wolf, Andean wolf,Comparative ecology of two South American foxes, 'Dusicvon ariseus' and 'culpaeus' by Warren E. Johnson. Doctoral dissertation. Io ...
(''Lycalopex culpaeus''), unlike other domesticated canids which were dogs and silver foxes. This means different canid species have been domesticated multiple times by humans independently.


References


Further reading

* Nowak, Ronald M. (2005). ''Walker's Carnivores of the World''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. {{Taxonbar, from=Q132687 * Taxa named by Hermann Burmeister