page_title: Cryptoprocta spelea
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Cryptoprocta spelea / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox), a carnivore of Madagascar, Bioparc Valencia Español: Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox): carnivoro / Madagascar / mamífero
context_page_description: Cryptoprocta spelea, also known as the giant fossa, is an extinct species of carnivore from Madagascar in the family Eupleridae, which is most closely related to the mongooses and includes all Malagasy carnivorans. It was first described in 1902, and in 1935 was recognized as a separate species from its closest relative, the living fossa. C. spelea is larger than the fossa, about the size of a gray wolf, but otherwise similar. The two have not always been accepted as distinct species. When and how the larger form became extinct is unknown; there is some anecdotal evidence, including reports of very large fossas, that there is more than one surviving species.
  The species is known from subfossil bones found in a variety of caves in northern, western, southern, and central Madagascar. In some sites, it occurs with remains of C. ferox, but there is no evidence that the two lived in the same places at the same time. Living species of comparably sized, related carnivores in other regions manage to coexist, suggesting that the same may have happened with both C. spelea and C. ferox.
context_section_description: Although some morphological differences between the two fossa species have been described, these may be allometric (growth-related), and in their 1986 Mammalian Species account of the fossa, Michael Köhncke and Klaus Leonhardt wrote that the two were morphologically identical. However, remains of C. spelea are larger than any living C. ferox. Goodman and colleagues found that skull measurements in specimens they identified as C. spelea were 1.07 to 1.32 times as large as in adult C. ferox, and postcranial measurements were 1.19 to 1.37 times as large. The only specimen of C. spelea in which condylobasal length (a measure of total skull length) could be ascertained measured 153.4 mm (6.04 in), compared to a range of 114.5 to 133.3 mm (4.51 to 5.25 in) in adult C. ferox. Humerus (upper arm bone) length in twelve C. spelea is 122.7 to 146.8 mm (4.83 to 5.78 in), averaging 137.9 mm (5.43 in), compared to 108.5 to 127.5 mm (4.27 to 5.02 in), averaging 116.1 mm (4.57 in), in the extant fossa. Body mass estimates for C. spelea range from 17 kg (37 lb) to 20 kg (44 lb), and it was among the largest carnivores of the island.  By comparison, adult C. ferox range from 5 kg (11 lb) to 10 kg (22 lb).
caption: The fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) is a smaller relative of C. spelea that still survives.
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