A nearly complete red fox skeleton dating back to the Ice Ages has been recovered in the Uinta Mountains of northeastern Utah. A team of scientists from the Utah Division of State Parks and the USDA Forest Service Ashley National Forest, along with a group of Utah cavers discovered the bones.

The fox skeleton is believed to be approximately 26,000 years old, based on a radiocarbon age on one of the bones from several years ago, dating from just before the last glacial maximum during the Ice Ages, according to a USDA Forest Service release. 

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 release said.

Red Foxes appeared in North America from Eurasia between 300,000 and 130,000 years ago and are the most widely distributed terrestrial carnivores in the world.

“It was a gorgeous specimen,” said the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum’s John Foster, who was the project's lead organizer. “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.”

“Roxy” was found partially articulated and lying on its left side in a less accessible part of the cave’s back. The name for the skeleton was a result of a poll taken at the museum, Foster said. “To find such a skeleton in a setting like a wet cave, with all the typical formations like ‘cave bacon,’ was unexpected as well,” he said.

Roxy, the red fox skeleton, was lit up and had scale markers placed before she was photographed. Nothing was touched until this process was finished. Photo by John Foster, Utah State Parks.

“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.”

“Perhaps the most common question is how the red fox got nearly half a mile into the back of the cave in complete darkness,” said Ashley National Forest geologist David Herron, who helped plan and lead the expedition.

Although the fox was found several years ago, it was never collected because of the difficulty in getting the fragile bones of the cave and down a mountain. The team decided to go in this past summer after additional planning efforts, Foster said. 

“Roxy the fox was collected from Whiterocks Cave in the Uinta Mountains at about 8,600 feet elevation. Because of the difficult access and conditions involving mud, crawling, and climbing, the team brought specially made plastic tubes for packing and getting bones out undamaged. Before any bones were removed, the skeleton was lit and photo-documented, another task that required hiking a lot of equipment up to and through the cave,” the release said.

“Getting the supplies and gear through the cave to the canid proved to be a challenge, and getting back out with the skeleton went only a little smoother,” Foster said. “We were in the cave for about six hours.”

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

Few Ice Age mammals had been found in northeastern Utah before the discovery of Rox, the red fox skeleton – one of those being the shin bone of a camel found in the 1980s south of Vernal. 

The bones will be fully cleaned and stabilized after initial tests are finished. Some of Roxy’s bones will be displayed at the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum in Vernal, Utah. 

“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.” λ