Lutrinae

Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 14 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, both freshwater and marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which includes weasels, badgers, mink, and wolverines, among other animals.

Lutrinae

Bernard Landgraf · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
otterPBDB
Sits inside
MustelidaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Mustelidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Mustelidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 374 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 103 of 374 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 81 of 374 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 154 of 374 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 6 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 4 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 6 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 8 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 9 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 9 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 9 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 11 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 13 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 14 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 18 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 28 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 32 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 37 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 36 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 122 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

374 occurrences of Lutrinae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

374 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

81 formations

Glenns Ferry — 42.82°N, 114.94°WGlenns Ferry — 43.00°N, 118.00°WVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EPeace River — 27.90°N, 81.80°WPeace River — 27.68°N, 81.95°WKoobi Fora — 4.07°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 3.98°N, 36.32°EKoobi Fora — 4.15°N, 36.40°EValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.80°N, 99.70°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WLukeino — 0.50°N, 35.67°ELukeino — 0.75°N, 35.87°EAlfambra — 40.35°N, 2.60°WAlfambra — 40.35°N, 2.63°WAlfambra — 40.38°N, 2.54°WAlfambra — 40.50°N, 1.02°WKanapoi — 2.37°N, 36.08°EKanapoi — 2.32°N, 36.07°EHadar — 11.14°N, 40.58°EHadar — 11.08°N, 40.68°EChemeron — 0.67°N, 35.83°EUSNO — 5.35°N, 36.17°ESwartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°EPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPalos Verdes Sand — 34.00°N, 118.20°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WChinji — 32.68°N, 72.37°EChinji — 32.87°N, 72.07°EChinji — 30.83°N, 73.49°EOlcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°WTruckee — 39.50°N, 118.50°WEtchegoin — 35.90°N, 120.00°WBermont — 28.80°N, 82.20°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WTimms Point Silt — 33.73°N, 118.28°WOlduvai — 2.98°S, 34.32°EMuluk — 30.42°N, 30.25°EWarwire — 1.50°N, 31.00°E'Ubeidiya — 32.68°N, 35.57°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.27°E

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The named rock units Lutrinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 57 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 205 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lutrinae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Lutrinae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

3,230 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 337 sites for Lutrinae, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

202 references

Each of the 374 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 190 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Lutrinae

Credit
Bernard Landgraf
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Lutrinae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMustelidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Baird 1857