From ‘third pole’ to north pole: a Himalayan origin for the arctic fox
The ‘third pole’ of the world is a fitting metaphor for the Himalayan–Tibetan Plateau, in allusion to its vast frozen terrain, rivalling the Arctic and Antarctic, at high altitude but low latitude. Living Tibetan and arctic mammals share adaptations to freezing temperatures such as long and thick wi...
Published in: | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4071559 2023-05-15T14:00:13+02:00 From ‘third pole’ to north pole: a Himalayan origin for the arctic fox Wang, Xiaoming Tseng, Zhijie Jack Li, Qiang Takeuchi, Gary T. Xie, Guangpu 2014-07-22 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4071559/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24920475 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0893 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4071559/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24920475 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0893 © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Research Articles Text 2014 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0893 2015-07-26T00:00:29Z The ‘third pole’ of the world is a fitting metaphor for the Himalayan–Tibetan Plateau, in allusion to its vast frozen terrain, rivalling the Arctic and Antarctic, at high altitude but low latitude. Living Tibetan and arctic mammals share adaptations to freezing temperatures such as long and thick winter fur in arctic muskox and Tibetan yak, and for carnivorans, a more predatory niche. Here, we report, to our knowledge, the first evolutionary link between an Early Pliocene (3.60–5.08 Myr ago) fox, Vulpes qiuzhudingi new species, from the Himalaya (Zanda Basin) and Kunlun Mountain (Kunlun Pass Basin) and the modern arctic fox Vulpes lagopus in the polar region. A highly hypercarnivorous dentition of the new fox bears a striking resemblance to that of V. lagopus and substantially predates the previous oldest records of the arctic fox by 3–4 Myr. The low latitude, high-altitude Tibetan Plateau is separated from the nearest modern arctic fox geographical range by at least 2000 km. The apparent connection between an ancestral high-elevation species and its modern polar descendant is consistent with our ‘Out-of-Tibet’ hypothesis postulating that high-altitude Tibet was a training ground for cold-environment adaptations well before the start of the Ice Age. Text Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Fox Arctic muskox North Pole Vulpes lagopus PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Arctic North Pole Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281 1787 20140893 |
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Research Articles Wang, Xiaoming Tseng, Zhijie Jack Li, Qiang Takeuchi, Gary T. Xie, Guangpu From ‘third pole’ to north pole: a Himalayan origin for the arctic fox |
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Research Articles |
description |
The ‘third pole’ of the world is a fitting metaphor for the Himalayan–Tibetan Plateau, in allusion to its vast frozen terrain, rivalling the Arctic and Antarctic, at high altitude but low latitude. Living Tibetan and arctic mammals share adaptations to freezing temperatures such as long and thick winter fur in arctic muskox and Tibetan yak, and for carnivorans, a more predatory niche. Here, we report, to our knowledge, the first evolutionary link between an Early Pliocene (3.60–5.08 Myr ago) fox, Vulpes qiuzhudingi new species, from the Himalaya (Zanda Basin) and Kunlun Mountain (Kunlun Pass Basin) and the modern arctic fox Vulpes lagopus in the polar region. A highly hypercarnivorous dentition of the new fox bears a striking resemblance to that of V. lagopus and substantially predates the previous oldest records of the arctic fox by 3–4 Myr. The low latitude, high-altitude Tibetan Plateau is separated from the nearest modern arctic fox geographical range by at least 2000 km. The apparent connection between an ancestral high-elevation species and its modern polar descendant is consistent with our ‘Out-of-Tibet’ hypothesis postulating that high-altitude Tibet was a training ground for cold-environment adaptations well before the start of the Ice Age. |
format |
Text |
author |
Wang, Xiaoming Tseng, Zhijie Jack Li, Qiang Takeuchi, Gary T. Xie, Guangpu |
author_facet |
Wang, Xiaoming Tseng, Zhijie Jack Li, Qiang Takeuchi, Gary T. Xie, Guangpu |
author_sort |
Wang, Xiaoming |
title |
From ‘third pole’ to north pole: a Himalayan origin for the arctic fox |
title_short |
From ‘third pole’ to north pole: a Himalayan origin for the arctic fox |
title_full |
From ‘third pole’ to north pole: a Himalayan origin for the arctic fox |
title_fullStr |
From ‘third pole’ to north pole: a Himalayan origin for the arctic fox |
title_full_unstemmed |
From ‘third pole’ to north pole: a Himalayan origin for the arctic fox |
title_sort |
from ‘third pole’ to north pole: a himalayan origin for the arctic fox |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4071559/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24920475 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0893 |
geographic |
Antarctic Arctic North Pole |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Arctic North Pole |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Fox Arctic muskox North Pole Vulpes lagopus |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Fox Arctic muskox North Pole Vulpes lagopus |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4071559/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24920475 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0893 |
op_rights |
© 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0893 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
281 |
container_issue |
1787 |
container_start_page |
20140893 |
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1766269220798070784 |