26,000-year-old Ice Age fox recovered in Utah cave

VERNAL, Utah (KTVX) — A team of Utah scientists and cavers have recovered a nearly complete skeleton of a 26,000-year-old red fox deep in a cave in the state's Uinta Mountains. It is the most complete skeleton of an Ice Age mammal found in the region.

The team of scientists, formed from the Utah Division of State Parks and the USDA Forest Service Ashley National Forest, along with a group of local cavers, recovered the skeleton deep in Whiterocks Cave.

"A radiocarbon age on one of the bones from several years ago indicated that the fox skeleton is approximately 26,000 years old, dating from just before the last glacial maximum during the Ice Ages," a press release from the Utah Division of State Parks states. "This means that the skeleton had already been lying in the cave for more than 10,000 years when humans first started farming founder crops and for more than 20,000 years when the Giza pyramids were built."

The skeleton, which has since been named "Roxy," was found nearly a half-mile deep into what experts called a "less accessible" part of the cave's back, leading experts to wonder how the fox got so deep in complete darkness. As of now, no one on the team of scientists is sure how or why it happened, and they even have differing opinions on the matter.

Roxy was found lying on its left side, partially articulated and very well preserved. The find is particularly amazing, experts said, given its setting in a wet cave with formations like "cave bacon" — sheetlike deposits of calcite or other carbonate minerals, formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of a cave — throughout the environment.

"It was a gorgeous specimen," said John Foster, the project's lead organizer from the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum. "Almost the entire animal lying where it had been for so long, nearly every bone intact and well preserved. We don’t often see specimens like that."

Red foxes are "the most widely distributed terrestrial carnivores in the world," according to Utah State Parks. They reportedly showed up in North America, coming from Eurasia, between 300,000 and 130,000 years ago. For much of their history, they have been found mostly in the western and northern parts of the continent.

"This specimen is one of the oldest directly dated records of the red fox species," said Ice Age mammal expert Greg McDonald, a retired National Park Service paleontologist. "The first in Utah, but among the oldest in North America."

The cave in which Roxy was found is located at about 8,600 feet elevation. The team was able to extract the bones from the area using specially made plastic tubes for packing and getting them out undamaged. Experts said team members had to crawl and climb through mud to get Roxy out.

The expedition took the team of nine around 16 hours to complete.

Once scientists are done testing, cleaning, and stabilizing the skeleton, some of Roxy’s bones will be displayed at the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum in Vernal. The nearly complete skeleton is one of the most significant finds of an Ice Age animal in the region.

"Roxy has finally seen the light of day again after 26,000 years in total darkness," Foster said. "We look forward to sharing her with visitors soon."