Interpreting the Results

The measurements indicated that both jaws belonged to the same species of coyote. Are you surprised that they were judged to be from the same species even though there were differences in some of the measurements? There is a logical answer: The paleontologists, like the anatomists, takes into consideration the fact that variations do occur among members of one species. Skeletal dimensions vary even among members of the same litter.

It was concluded, then, that the second coyote jaw found at Irvington (the paratype) belonged to the same species as the first (the holotype). But one question was yet to be answered: Did these jaws belong to a species never before discovered? This brings us back to the comparison of the first jaw with the ones already identified.

Savage compared the Irvington jaw with 30 jaw specimens of Canis latrans ochropus, a coyote of the Recent epoch from San Mateo and Santa Clara counties; with 9 jaws of Recent jaws of Canis latrans estor from California and Nevada; and with 30 jaws of the late Pleistocene coyote Canis latrans ochropus from Rancho la Brea. When this work was finished, there was little reason to doubt that a new species had been discovered. The next task was to give it a name.