| Pleistocene coyote Temporal range: Late Pleistocene | |
|---|---|
| |
| A cast of a Canis latrans orcutti skeleton | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Caniformia |
| Family: | Canidae |
| Genus: | Canis |
| Subspecies: | †C. l. orcutti |
| Trinomial name | |
| †Canis latrans orcutti | |
The Pleistocene coyote (Canis latrans orcutti), also known as the Ice Age coyote, is an extinct subspecies of coyote that lived in western North America during the Late Pleistocene. Most remains of the subspecies have been found in southern California, though at least one was discovered in Idaho. It was part of a carnivore guild that included other canids like foxes, gray wolves, and dire wolves.
Compared to their modern Holocene counterparts, Pleistocene coyotes were larger and more robust, weighing 39–46 lb (18–21 kg), likely in response to larger competitors and prey rather than Bergmann's rule. Their skulls and jaws were significantly thicker and deeper than in modern coyotes, with a shorter and broader rostrum and wider carnassial teeth. These adaptions allowed it to cope with higher stresses when it killed larger prey than modern coyotes. Pleistocene coyotes were also likely more specialized carnivores than their descendents, as their teeth were more adapted to shearing meat, showing fewer grinding surfaces suited for processing vegetation. The lower jaw was also deeper, and the molars showed more signs of wear and breakage than modern populations, thus indicating that the animals consumed more bone than today. Behaviourally, it is likely to have been more social than the modern coyote, as its remains are the third most common in the La Brea Tar Pits, after dire wolves and sabre-toothed cats, both thought to be gregarious species.
Their reduction in size occurred within 1,000 years of the occurrence of the Quaternary extinction event, when the climate changed and the majority of their larger prey became extinct. Furthermore, Pleistocene coyotes were unable to exploit the big game hunting niche left vacant after the extinction of the dire wolf, as it was rapidly filled by gray wolves, which likely actively killed off the large-bodied coyotes, with natural selection favouring the modern gracile morph. Human predation on the Pleistocene coyote's dwindling prey base may have also impacted the animal's change in morphology.
Canis latrans harriscrooki[]
Canis latrans harriscrooki (Slaughter, 1961) was a Late Pleistocene coyote that once inhabited what is now Texas. Slaughter described it as being wolf-like and was distinguished from other coyotes by a well-developed posterior cusp on its p2 (the second premolar on its mandible), a longer tooth row relative to the depth of its mandible, a reduced distance between premolars, and a more vertical descending ramus. The cusp dentition was also found in two specimens from Mexico and one from Honduras. Slaughter identified some affinity with Canis latrans hondurensis. Nowak proposed the hypothesis that a warm-adapted coyote that was more wolf-like than modern coyotes once inhabited Pleistocene Texas and might still be represented by Canis latrans hondurensis.