C. alpinus Skull Replica measures 7.4 inches. C. alpinus Male Skull Replica is museum quality polyurethane cast. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). Made in USA. Cast from original specimen. Our precise skull can be used as a teaching tool, museum skull exhibit, home decor skull, or office decor skull.

The Dhole or C. alpinus typically weighs 26 to 44 pounds and measures 35 inches in body length and 20 inches shoulder height. The tail measures 16 to 18 inches in length. The Dhole has a broad, domed skull and a short, broad muzzle.

The bones of the forehead and upper jaw are swollen, producing a dish-faced profile. The hooded eyes have amber or light brown irises, and the ears are large and rounded.

It’s skull is convex rather than concave in profile, it lacks a third lower molar and the upper molars sport only a single cusp as opposed to between two and four.

During the Pleistocene, the dhole ranged throughout Asia, Europe and North America but became restricted to its historical range 12,000–18,000 years ago.

The Cuon alpinus is a highly social animal, living in large clans without rigid dominance hierarchies and containing multiple breeding females.

The first study on the origins of the species was conducted by paleontologist Erich Thenius, who concluded in 1955 that the dhole was a post-Pleistocene descendant of a golden jackal-like ancestor.

The paleontologist Bjorn Kurten wrote in his 1968 book Pleistocene Mammals of Europe that the primitive dhole Canis majori Del Campana 1913 —the remains of which have been found in Villafranchian era Valdarno, Italy and in China—was almost indistinguishable from the genus Canis.

In comparison, the modern species has greatly reduced molars and the cusps have developed into sharply trenchant points.

During the Early Middle Pleistocene there arose both Canis majori stehlini that was the size of a large wolf, and the early dhole Canis alpinus Pallas 1811 which first appeared at Hundsheim and Mosbach in Germany.

In the Late Pleistocene era the European dhole (C. a. europaeus) was modern-looking and the transformation of the lower molar into a single cusped, slicing tooth had been completed; however, its size was comparable with that of a wolf.

This subspecies became extinct in Europe at the end of the late Würm period, but the species as a whole still inhabits a large area of Asia.

The European dhole may have survived up until the early Holocene in the Iberian Peninsula and what is believed to be dhole remains have been found at Riparo Fredian in northern Italy dated 10,800 years old.

The Dhole’s distinctive morphology has been a source of much confusion in determining the species’ systematic position among the Canidae.

George Simpson placed the Dhole in the subfamily Simocyoninae alongside the African wild dog and the bush dog, on account of all three species’ similar dentition.

Filter