GabyArchaeologists from the University of Oxford uncovered a 1,500-year-old burial site in Patagonia. Among the finds was the skeleton of Dusicyon avus, a South American canid that went extinct around 500 years ago. The fox was buried alongside 21 humans, which suggests it may have been a companion to people long before dogs were domesticated.
Patagonia is the region of South America south of the Río Colorado in Argentina and the Biobío River in Chile; its borders aren’t precisely defined, and some definitions include Tierra del Fuego. Researchers say the fox may have meant more than a wild animal to the hunter-gatherers who buried it. The evidence points to a strong bond between the animal and the people, suggesting it was treated like a companion, the Independent reported.
Dusicyon avus
Why do researchers think this? They describe the find as rare and unusual. The bones show no cut marks, which suggests people did not hunt Dusicyon avus for meat or fur. Dr. Ophelie Lebrasseur, a zooarchaeologist at the Oxford School of Archaeology, said, “There are several factors that lead us to consider our fox as a companion or domestic animal, rather than part of the human diet.” She added, “No cut marks were found on any of the animal’s bones, meaning it was not consumed.”
The fox’s remains were found within a human burial context, implying the animal held importance for that community. Its diet differed from other canids and more closely matched human diets — in other words, the fox ate many of the same foods as the people buried there. Dr. Lebrasseur says the animal was either fed by the hunter-gatherers or scavenged their leftovers.
Dusicyon avus weighed roughly 22 to 33 pounds — about the size of a modern German shepherd. It lived in open grasslands and low shrub areas across much of South America, including Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. Analysis of its bones and teeth shows it ate both meat and plant-based foods. It’s often confused with the Falkland Islands wolf (Dusicyon australis), which went extinct in the 19th century, so researchers have far more information about the island wolf than about the Patagonian species.
Why it went extinct around 500 years ago isn’t clear. One idea is that domestic dogs arrived in Patagonia 700–900 years ago and may have played a role. But researchers argue that hybridization between local canids and introduced dogs was unlikely to produce viable, fertile offspring, so that alone probably doesn’t explain Dusicyon avus’s disappearance.
Could Patagonian foxes have been domesticated? There’s no definitive answer. Dr. Lebrasseur said, “We believe the discovery of a Dusicyon avus specimen with such a close connection to a hunter-gatherer community is extraordinarily rare and intriguing; it represents a unique case of partnership between humans and a wild South American fox.” The findings were published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
