Coyote Fossil Skull from Bonner Springs


Canis latrans Coyote Fossil

Phylum Chordata, Class Mammalia, Order Carnivora, Family Canidae

Geological Time: Holocene to Pleistocene

Size: 205 mm long

Fossil Site: Bonner Springs, Kansas


Coyote fossilThis skull fossil comes from a Coyote known as Canis falconeri, the same species as is extant today. It comes from a series of river terrace deposits near Bonner Springs, Kansas. These specimens are found as drifts on the riverbanks and sand bars, and as such have possibly been reworked from older deposits. They are found in association with bison, mammoths, mastodons, muskoxen, deer, peccary, short-faced bears,and others. Most of them have been dated as Rancholabrean Stage in age, and are thus some 10,000 years old. Specimens of bison have ranged from 8,000 to 35,000 years in age, which provides a viable estimate of the age.

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