Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Cladus: Synapsida
Cladus: Eupelycosauria
Cladus: Sphenacodontia
Cladus: Sphenacodontoidea
Cladus: Therapsida
Cladus: Theriodontia
Cladus: Cynodontia
Cladus: Eucynodontia
Cladus: Probainognathia
Cladus: Prozostrodontia
Cladus: Mammaliaformes
Classis: Mammalia
Subclassis: Trechnotheria
Infraclassis: Zatheria
Supercohors: Theria
Cohors: Eutheria
Infraclassis: Placentalia
Cladus: Boreoeutheria
Superordo: Laurasiatheria
Cladus: Scrotifera
Cladus: Ferungulata
Cladus: Ferae
Cladus: Pancarnivora
Cladus: Carnivoramorpha
Cladus: Carnivoraformes
Ordo: Carnivora
Subordo: Caniformia
Familia: Canidae
Genus: Lycalopex
Species: L. culpaeus - L. fulvipes - L. griseus - L. gymnocercus - L. sechurae - L. vetulus – †L. cultridens – †L. ensenadensis
Name
Lycalopex Burmeister, 1854
Type species: Canis magellanicus Gray, 1847 [= Canis culpaeus Molina, 1782, by subsequent designation [Cabrera, 1931]]
Synonymy
Angusticeps Hilzheimer, 1906
Eunothocyon Allen, 1905
Lupulus Trouessart, 1897: 299
Lycalopex Burmeister, 1854: 95
Microcyon Trouessart, 1906
Nothocyon Wortman & Matthew, 1899: 124
Procyon Fischer, 1814: XI
Pseudalopex Burmeister, 1856: 52
Pseudolopex Philippi, 1903
Pseudolycos Philippi, 1903
Thous Gray, 1869
Viverriceps Hilzheimer, 1906
Vulpes Martin, 1837
References
Primary references
Fischer, G. 1814. Zoognosia tabulis synopticis illustrata, in usum praelectionum Academiae Imperialis Medico-Chirurgicae Mosquensis edita. Editio Tertia. Volumen Tertium. Quadrupedum reliquorum, cetorum et montrymatum descriptionem continens. Nicolai Sergeidis Vsevolozsky: Mosquae [=Moscow]. xxiv + 732 pp. BHL Reference page.
Burmeister, C.H.C 1854. Systematische Uebersicht der Thiere Brasiliens: welche während einer Reise durch die Provinzen von Rio de Janeiro und Minas geraës gesammlt oder beobachtet Wurden. Erster Theil. Säugethiere (Mammalia). Georg Reimer: Berlin. i–x + 341 pp BHL DOI: 10.5962/bhl.title.13607 Reference page.
Trouessart, E.-L. 1897. Catalogus mammalium tam viventium quam fossilium. Berolini: R. Friedländer & Sohn, 1:vi + 664p. BHL Reference page.
Wortman, J.L. & Matthew, W.D. 1899. The ancestry of certain members of the Canidae, the Viverridae, and Procyonidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 12(6): 109–138. hdl: 2246/1535 Open access Internet Archive Reference page.
Vernacular names
日本語: スジオイヌ属
norsk: Søramerikanske rever
русский: Зорро
The South American foxes (Lycalopex), commonly called raposa in Portuguese, or zorro in Spanish, are a genus from South America of the subfamily Caninae. 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. The South American gray fox, 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, and date from 2.0 to 2.5 million years ago, in the mid- to late Pliocene.[4] The Vorohué Formation of Argentina has provided older fossils, dating to the Uquian to Ensenadan (Late Pliocene).[5]
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.[1][6] In 1895, Allen classified Pseudalopex as a subgenus of Canis, establishing the combination Canis (Pseudalopex), a name still used in the fossil record.[2]
Species
Species currently included in this genus include:[1]
| Image | Name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Lycalopex culpaeus | Culpeo or Andean fox | Ecuador and Peru to the southern regions of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego |
 |
Lycalopex fulvipes | Darwin's fox | Nahuelbuta National Park (Araucanía Region), the Valdivian Coastal Range (Los Ríos Region) in mainland Chile and Chiloé Island |
 |
Lycalopex griseus | South American gray fox or chilla | Argentina and Chile |
 |
Lycalopex gymnocercus | Pampas fox | northern and central Argentina, Uruguay, eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, and southern Brazil |
 |
Lycalopex sechurae | Sechuran fox | west-central, northwestern Peru, including the Sechura Desert, and southwestern Ecuador |
 |
Lycalopex vetulus | Hoary fox | south-central Brazil |
| †Canis (Pseudalopex) australis | Vorohué Formation, Uquian-Ensenadan Argentina[5] |
In 1914, Oldfield Thomas established the genus Dusicyon, in which he included these zorros. They were later reclassified to Lycalopex (via Pseudalopex) by Langguth in 1975.[1]
Phylogeny
The following phylogenetic tree shows the evolutionary relationships between the Lycalopex species, based on molecular analysis of mitochondrial DNA control region sequences.[7]
| Lycalopex |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Relationship with humans
The zorros are hunted in Argentina for their durable, soft pelts. They are also often labelled 'lamb-killers'.[citation needed]
In his diary of his well-known 1952 traveling with the young Che Guevara,[8] Alberto Granado mentions talking with seasonal workers employed on vast sheep farms, who told him of a successful campaign by the ranch owners to exterminate the foxes who were preying on lambs. The ranchers offered a reward of one Argentinian peso for the body of a dead male fox and as much as five pesos for a female fox; to impoverished workers in the early 1950s, five pesos were a significant sum. Within a few years, foxes became virtually extinct in a large part of Argentina.
The Fuegian dog (Spanish: perro yagán, perro fueguino), also known as the Yaghan dog, was a domesticated form of the culpeo (Lycalopex culpaeus),[9] unlike other domesticated canids which were dogs and silver foxes. This means different canid species have been domesticated multiple times by humans independently.
References
Wozencraft, W. C. (2005). "Order Carnivora". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
"Canis (Pseudalopex) australis Kerr 1792". Fossilworks. Gateway to the Paleobiology Database. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
Lucherini, M. & Luengos Vidal, E. M. (2008). "Lycalopex gymnocercus (Carnivora: Canidae)". Mammalian Species. 820: Number 820, pp. 1–9. doi:10.1644/820.1. hdl:11336/115900.
Vorohuen (sic; Vorohué) Formation at Fossilworks.org
Lucherini, M. (2016). "Lycalopex culpaeus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T6929A85324366. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T6929A85324366.en. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
Tchaicka, Ligia; Freitas, Thales Renato Ochotorena de; Bager, Alex; Vidal, Stela Luengos; Lucherini, Mauro; Iriarte, Agustín; Novaro, Andres; Geffen, Eli; Garcez, Fabricio Silva; Johnson, Warren E.; Wayne, Robert K.; Eizirik, Eduardo (2016). "Molecular assessment of the phylogeny and biogeography of a recently diversified endemic group of South American canids (Mammalia: Carnivora: Canidae)" (PDF). Genetics and Molecular Biology. 39 (3): 442–451. doi:10.1590/1678-4685-GMB-2015-0189. PMC 5004827. PMID 27560989.
TRAVELLING WITH CHE GUEVARA by Alberto Granado
Petrigh, Romina S.; Fugassa, Martin H. (December 13, 2013). "Molecular identification of a Fuegian dog belonging to the Fagnano Regional Museum ethnographic collection, Tierra del Fuego" (PDF). Quaternary International. 317: 14–18. Bibcode:2013QuInt.317...14P. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2013.07.030. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 20, 2016. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
Further reading
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pseudalopex.
Wikispecies has information related to Lycalopex.
Nowak, Ronald M. (2005). Walker's Carnivores of the World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. ISBN 0-8018-8032-7
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