An ancient civilization in South America seemed to have a close relationship with a now-extinct fox species, according to a new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
Archaeologists found over 3,000 human bones in a gravesite originally excavated in 1991, along with several artifacts, but they also found almost complete remains of a fox next to the human remains.
Archaeologists confirmed that the animal remains were from a fox using DNA and radiocarbon dating, per the study. They identified it as the extinct Dusicyon avus, per BBC, which went extinct about 500 years ago.
What archaeologists know about the grave site
Discovered by accident during a mining activity, the grave site had lost a lot of contextual information during a rescue excavation, such as how the grave site was created, according to the study.
What they could find included the skeletal remains of three babies, a child, two adolescents and 18 adults, along with jewelry, stone tools and fox remains. Smithsonian Magazine reports that the site is approximately 1,500 years old.
Could it be a pet fox?
The study states that the team can’t officially know if there was a pet relationship between the fox and the humans, but they were able to find out through testing that the fox had a similar diet to the humans, saying, “In other words, the hunter-gatherers fully incorporated this wild animal into their ecological and cultural niche, possibly through systematic feeding.”
Through carbon dating, scientists were able to figure out that the fox was buried at around the same time as the humans, Smithsonian Magazine reports. It also most likely went extinct due to climate change and other natural factors, not due to interbreeding with domestic dogs as previously thought.
According to the BBC, other grave sites across Argentina and Peru have been found with wild fox teeth, which could mean the animal had a symbolic meaning to these people. They also report that another grave, albeit much older than this one, was also found with the remains of the same fox species and could have been a pet.
The study states that the burial of both a human and a fox are rare and “suggests a cultural or symbolic significance. Although the reasons for its inclusion in a mortuary context remain unclear, the most plausible explanation is that this fox was a valuable companion to the hunter-gatherer groups.”
According to Newsweek, this specific fox skeleton is “the farthest north this species had ever been found.”
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