Arctic Foxes Trace Ancestry To Tibet

Scientists say that the newly identified Tibetan fox is the ancestor of modern day arctic foxes, suggesting that animals used the Tibetan Plateau as a stepping stone to Arctic adaptation.

AsianScientist (Jun 19, 2014) – A study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences identifies a newly discovered three to five million-year-old Tibetan fox from the Himalayan Mountains, Vulpes qiuzhudingi, as the likely ancestor of the living Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus).

These findings lend support to the idea that the evolution of present-day animals of the Arctic region is intimately connected to ancestors that first became adapted for life in cold regions in the high altitude environments of the Tibetan Plateau, an idea the authors term the “out of Tibet” hypothesis.

Led by Dr. Wang Xiaoming, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, a team of geologists and paleontologists uncovered the fossil specimens in the Zanda Basin in southern Tibet in 2010.

In addition to the arctic fox, the team also uncovered extinct species of a woolly rhino, three-toed horse, Tibetan bharal (also known as blue sheep), chiru (Tibetan antelope), snow leopard, badger, as well as 23 other mammals.

The origin of the cold-adapted Pleistocene megafauna has usually been sought either in the arctic tundra or in the cool steppes elsewhere. However, the team’s new fossil assemblage suggests an alternative scenario, which the authors call the “out of Tibet” hypothesis, arguing that some of the Ice Age megafauna (including the woolly mammoth, woolly rhino and saber-toothed cat) used ancient Tibet as a “training ground” for developing adaptations that allowed them to cope with the severe climatic conditions. These Tibetan ancestors were thus pre-adapted to cold climates during the Ice Age (2.6-.01 million years ago).

Tibet, according to Wang, is a rich but grueling location for paleontological fieldwork. Fifteen summer seasons, and a good deal of luck, have honed his team’s success. The expeditions involve a one-week journey to Lhasa, then a four-day drive into the remote “layer cake” sediments of the Zanda Basin, a drive made in old model Land Cruisers that frequently gets stuck in streams. At more than 4000-meter elevation, it’s difficult to breathe and water freezes overnight in camps.

“There are a lot of challenges,” Wang said, “but in paleontological terms, it is a relatively unexplored environment. Our efforts are rewriting a significant chapter of our planet’s recent geological history.”

The article can be found at: Wang et al. (2014) From ‘third pole’ to north pole: a Himalayan origin for the arctic fox.

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Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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