Description

Canis orcutti
Late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean)
Rancho La Brea Formation
Maricopa Tar Pits
Kern County, California, USA
52mm maxilla with two teeth on plastic stand from the Tar Pits of California

Mammal, Canidae, carnivoran.

Canis orcutti (aka C. latrans orcutti) is an extinct subspecies of coyote best known from the Late Pleistocene of southern California. It was larger and more robust than the modern coyote (C. latrans) but not morphologically distinct enough to assign it to a separate species.

This is a cool carnivore piece for the collector looking for something different though it appears this coyote wasn’t “wily” enough to stay away from the tar.