Nature never stops surprising us. For millions of years, the evolution of dogs and foxes had never crossed paths, but in Brazil, that phenomenon happened. “Dogxim” is the name of this creature, which obviously joins together “dog” and “graxaim” (Pampas Fox, the Lycalopex gymnocercus, in Portuguese). The animal was found by pure chance, got run over, and taken to the dog refuge, where people got confused: it looked like a fox, but it acted like a domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris).
Thales Renato and Rafael Kretschmer did some genetics tests and confirmed what they were suspecting: it was a real hybrid, the first one of this type.
Btu what does this tell us about evolution and limits between species? What’s the story there?
What ’s a Dogxym?
The finding of the new race was by pure hazard. After the traffic accident, the animal arrived at the refuge in Brazil, and if you looked at it, by its traits—the face, the long neck, and the hair type—it looked like a pampas fox. But the way it was acting out was way closer to a dog, and a domestic one, so the situation didn’t fit with a wild fox.
Since the doubts were too big, the scientists analyzed the DNA, and what they found matched what they thought. Let’s talk chromosomes; the pampas fox has 74, and the domestic dog has 78, but Dogxym was showing 76, the exact middle of the two of them. That number, along with other characteristics of conduct and physical traits, leads to the result: a hybrid.
What the features reveal
Dogxim was a female, a very cute one actually, and her aspect points to a pampas fox by the long snout and the thin neck, but with the twist of the typical conduct of a domestic dog. That language also appears on the chromosomes; 76 is the just middle in between both parents.
For science, it is not just data. It means that dogs and foxes are still biologically compatible, even after all these years there hasn’t been any sign of it. It remains that evolution and nature can cross paths that we thought were definitely closed, and it raises questions to keep the study of the fauna going up. When humans, fauna, and flora share the same space for such a long time, discoveries can be astonishing.
Now let’s go with the questions: Could it have offspring? Is it fertile? The team asked the questions, but there wasn’t much time to answer them because, sadly, a few months later Dogxym passed away for unknown causes.
The scientists say that sometimes when crosses like this happen, it can also bring genetical alterations that make the animal bigly vulnerable to diseases. They couldn’t comfort any offspring from that breeding.
A short life, a big impact
This story opens some doors, crossovers we didn’t know of. Not all hybrids become a population (like the mules), but it is still a big step; it allows us to think about evolution not as a direct line, but maybe also as a map with bifurcations and exceptions of all kinds.
It’s also a human collection. These findings were possible because of observation and curiosity. Dogxym didn’t get to live a long life, but in its short life it left something important behind, showing that a dog and a fox can still cross paths.
Are we going to see more fox-dog hybrids? No one knows. Maybe they already exist but they’re not noticed, or they only appear once in a while. If another one shows up, it will be one of those surprises that keep science moving forward.