Enhydriodon: Giant Killer Otter of Ice Age Africa

Please enjoy this episode focusing on Enhydriodon, a successful genus of giant otter that lived from the Late Miocene to the Early Pleistocene. It was the largest Mustelid so far known, with E. omoensis being about the size of a lion.

  / drpolaris  

Thumbnail art by Hodari Nundu

Sources used for this video:

Bibi, Faysal; Souron, Antoine; Bocherens, Hervé; Uno, Kevin; Boisserie, ean-Renaud (2013). "Ecological change in the lower Omo Valley around 2.8 Ma". Biology Letters. 9 (1): 1–4. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2012.0890

Bobe, René (2011). "Fossil Mammals and Paleoenvironments in the Omo-Turkana Basin". Evolutionary Anthropology. 20 (6): 254–263.

Geraads, Denis; Alemseged, Zeresenay; Bobe, René; Reed, Denné (2011). "Enhydriodon dikikae, sp. nov. (Carnivora: Mammalia), a gigantic otter from the Pliocene of Dikika, Lower Awash, Ethiopia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 31 (2): 447–453. Bibcode:2011JVPal..31..447G

Geraads, Denis; Alemseged, Zeresenay; Bobe, René; Reed, Denné (2015). "Pliocene Carnivora (Mammalia) from the Hadar Formation at Dikika, Lower Awash Valley, Ethiopia". Journal of African Earth Sciences. 107: 28–35. Bibcode:2015JAfES.107...28G

Grohé, Camille; Uno, Kevin; Boisserie, Jean-Renaud (2022). "Lutrinae Bonaparte, 1838 (Carnivora, Mustelidae) from the Plio-Pleistocene of the Lower Omo Valley, southwestern Ethiopia: systematics and new insights into the paleoecology and paleobiogeography of the Turkana otters". Comptes Rendus Palevol (in French). 30 (30): 684–693. doi:10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a30

Negash, Enquye W.; Alemseged, Zeresenay; Bobe, René; Grine, Frederick; Sponheimer, Matt; G. Wynn, Jonathan (2020). "Dietary trends in herbivores from the Shungura Formation, southwestern Ethiopia". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117 (36): 21921–21927.

Wang, Xiaoming; Grohé, Camille; Su, Denise F.; White, Stuart C.; Ji, Xueping; Kelley, Jay; Jablonski, Nina G.; Deng, Tao; You, Youshan; Yang, Xin (2017). "A new otter of giant size, Siamogale melilutra sp. nov. (Lutrinae: Mustelidae: Carnivora), from the latest Miocene Shuitangba site in north-eastern Yunnan, south-western China, and a total-evidence phylogeny of lutrines". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 16 (1): 1–24. Bibcode:2018JSPal..16...39W

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