(Newser) – Picture an otter, then envision it ballooning to twice—or triple, or quadruple—its size until it's a 110-pound creature: It's not a journey into the imagination, but to yesteryear. Remains of a 6.24 million year old otter, Siamogale Melilutra, has been found that is the size of a wolf. Some, like the sea otter or giant river otter, can grow to more than 75 pounds. The otter, Siamogale melilutra, weighed about 110 pounds—bigger than any living otter. This means that Jan 23, 2017 - Millions of years ago, a wolf-sized otter swam around ancient swampy China, scientists have discovered. A giant, prehistoric otter’s surprisingly powerful bite. Bear + Dog = Amphicyon. Prehistoric Otter Thoughts on prehistoric life. It had a long snout and a long tail like a modern day wolf, but it also had a stocky build, powerful forelimbs, plantigrade feet (i.e. Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard, durable form. Marsupials (Marsupialia) The largest-known marsupial is the extinct Diprotodon, about 3 m (9.8 ft) long, standing … She said all the pieces were still there, the breaks were clean and the edges fit well with each other, so essentially what they had was a deflated cranium. A COVID Debate Unfolds, US Considers New Strategy on Vaccinations, UK Takes Another 'Giant Step' on Vaccine Front, Doctors Start to See Psychosis in COVID Patients, 42 People Accidentally Got COVID Treatment, Not Vaccine, In Letter on Capitol Riot, Melania Trump Swings Back, Capitol Police Officer Dies in Apparent Suicide, Doctor Dies Two Weeks After COVID Vaccination, Kamala Harris' Vogue Cover Isn't Going Over Well, Retired Air Force Colonel ID'd as Member of Capitol Mob. The ancient otters got up to 110 pounds (50 kilograms) in size. Credit: Tseng et al., Scientific Reports, 2017 . The jaw of Siamogale melilutra, the giant prehistoric otter, (upper right-hand corner) has few weaknesses. A really, really big otter. The end result revealed a head with badger-like dental characteristics, says Su, hence the animal's name. Put all these aspects of biology and lifestyle together, and what you get is an incredibly successful herbivore. Imagine wolf-sized prehistoric otters opening mollusks with their hands Sugar, a North American river otter, swims in its enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. Otters are carnivorous mammals that are adapted to hunting and living in and around water. We use cookies. A digital reconstruction of a flattened cranium belonging to an extinct otter. 1100: Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon reaches apex in size at 800 rooms; 1100: Hohokam culture reaches apex in present-day Arizona; Scandinavians briefly settled Vinland (likely l'Anse aux Meadows on the Canadian Maritime island of Newfoundland) early in the century and perhaps ventured as far south as New England. Unicorns did exist. it walked with its paws flat on the ground) and grew up to 2.5 metres long and… Another of Aepyornis’ (and other Elephant Birds’) claims to fame is their humongous eggs. The ancient "badger otter" is a far cry from the modern river otters of today. He speculated that the otter might have mostly preyed on the clams and shellfish, rather than on the large land animals that lived in the area. These have ranged from the “Terminator Pig” (which makes me think of a pig wearing sunglasses and travelling through time on a mission to destroy!) Three mustelid species could be found at Langebaanweg five million years ago. You might have heard about that insane extinct otter that lived around 6 million years ago and weighed around 11o pounds—about as much as a wolf. AP Photo/John Minchillo Picture an otter and you’ll probably imagine a peaceful creature playing in the calm seas. Daeodon the Terminator . Comparing this specimen to modern and other prehistoric otters, Su and her team found that “these bunodont teeth actually arose at least four different times within the greater otter lineage.” This means the teeth were not inherited by different otter species, but emerged because of convergent evolution – meaning they ate similar things. When Westley and Buttercup ventured into the Fire Swamp in The Princess Bride, they came into contact with … – The prehistoric 'otter' with a formidable bite: Kolponomos was as large as a bear with jaws like a sabre-toothed cat By Richard Gray for MailOnline 12:28 02 Mar 2016, updated 12:47 02 Mar 2016 6 Million Years Ago, Otters the Size of Wolves Roamed China’s Wetlands. North American river otters can get up to around 30 pounds (14 kilograms), though the endangered giant otter found in … This strength, paired with the creature’s size, would have made it a formidable hunter. The remains of a giant-headed, wolf-sized prehistoric otter was discovered in a quarry in China. When scientists used computers to simulate how biting would strain S. melilutra's jaws, they concluded that the animal had much firmer jaw bones than expected, giving it a surprisingly strong bite. Prehistoric Otter Thoughts on prehistoric life. Picture an otter, then envision it ballooning to twice—or triple, or quadruple—its size until it's a 110-pound creature: It's not a journey into the imagination, but to yesteryear. The researchers believe the creature was a mollusk-eater, which raises a, well, big question. An artist’s rendering of Siamogale melilutra, a giant prehistoric otter with a surprisingly powerful bite.Courtesy Mauricio Anton. ... S. melilutra was an otter. It is the longest member of the weasel family, Mustelidae , a globally successful group of predators, reaching up to 1.7 metres (5.6 ft). An international team of scientists has announced news of the largest otter ever found, one that lived some 6.2 million years ago and has been given the name Siamogale melilutra, the latter word a mash-up of the Latin words for "badger" and "otter." “But we were lucky because it just sat there.”. They shot a diamond made of iron at a car moving at 400 walls per hour, and as a result caused two … sized prehistoric otter reveals much Sugar, a North American river otter, swims in its enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. The otter, Siamogale melilutra, weighed about 110 pounds — bigger than any living otter. The 50-kilogram (110 lb) Siamogale melilutra wasn’t just big, it was a top predator with a surprisingly strong bite. Wolf-sized otters prowled prehistoric China. The flattened fossilized cranium of an ancient extinct otter. An artist’s rendering of Siamogale melilutra, an extinct otter the size of a wolf. “We started our study with the idea that this otter was just a larger version of a sea otter or an African clawless otter in terms of chewing ability, that it would just be able to eat much larger things. “It was squashed flat like a pancake because of the fossilization process,” Dr. Su said. The Thule people began absorbing the old Dorset culture in Arctic Alaska. Get The Morning 8: The eight stories you need to know, bright and early. Being large would have been evolutionarily advantageous for a creature that had to crush through hard shells for food. By CHARLOTTE HSU. Credit: Tseng et al., Scientific Reports, 2017 . Dating back over six million years and weighing in at 100 pounds, these huge semi-aquatic mammals were thought to have once thrived in the shallow swamplands of ancient China. Download a high resolution chart of heat maps of biting simulations of various otters' jaws. The outsized otter, called Siamogale melilutra, weighed about 50kg (110lb) and measured up to 2 metres (6.5ft) long, making it bigger than any of its cousins alive today, the researchers said on Monday. But none are as large as S. melilutra was; the team thinks the otter measured about six feet long from snout to the tip of the tail and weighed about 110 pounds. F r ai n B r ee z e (Frain ... saving the earth from a meteor the size of a small Washington suburb that was hurtling towards mid-western Prussia at 400 billion miles per hour. A large extinct otter, Siamogale melilutra, has been found in the Miocene Shuitangba site in northeastern Yunnan Province in China. ... As a result the size estimates of Aepyornis is now considered to be a more modest 2.5 metres tall and 400-500kg in weight on average, which is still larger than any living bird! The details of the otter's prehistoric environment do not do much to help. Dr. Denise Su, curator of paleobotany and paleoecology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, discusses the discovery of a new species of prehistoric otter. Known as Siamogale melilutra, this newly discovered extinct otter was about the size of a wolf and had strong-looking jaws. The 13 living otter species are found throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. It weighed about 110 pounds and grew to be the size of a wolf. 16-18 million years ago, a fierce predator roamed the North American landscape. Ancient Wolf-Size Otter Had Bizarrely Strong Bite Studies of the prehistoric swamp creature hint at a trade-off in sea otters between powerful jaws and tool use. A large extinct otter, Siamogale melilutra, has been found in the Miocene Shuitangba site in northeastern Yunnan Province in China. The “terminator” and “hell” parts of its nicknames stem from its huge size, Daeodon was the size of a bison, and it’s grotesque looking face which possessed side flanges, bony bumps and fearsome looking teeth. The remains were found in Shuitangba quarry in 2010 by a team of Chinese and American paleontologists. But when the team found the skull, special steps had to be taken to unlock its secrets. May 19, 2018 - Some of these massive beasts are familiar in form but enormous in size, while others are strange hybrids of modern-day animals. Atypical of mustelids, the giant otter is a social species, with family groups typically supporting three to eight members. A massive, wolf-sized otter that lived about 6 million years ago may have been a dominant predator in its time, according to a new study analyzing the animal’s jaws. The researchers aren’t sure why the otter was so big. S. melilutra was an otter. The discovery was made after studying an "incredibly complete," though completely flattened fossilized cranium found in a mine in China's Yunnan Province, researcher Denise Su explains in a press release. Paleontologists have revealed the discovery of a prehistoric otter that was around the size of a wolf. An otter like no other. A giant, prehistoric otter’s surprisingly powerful bite. The otter, Siamogale melilutra, weighed about 110 pounds — bigger than any living otter. Around six million years ago, the wetlands and swampy forests of southwest China housed wolf-sized otters that could mess you up spectacularly. Prehistoric Otter Thoughts on Prehistoric Life. A wolf-sized otter weighing close to 110 pounds which once roamed the Earth’s ancient swamps was a top predator thanks to its powerful bite, a … To “inflate” it, they performed a CT scan on the fossil and then digitally reconstructed it. (Newser) – Picture an otter, then envision it ballooning to twice—or triple, or quadruple—its size until it's a 110-pound creature: It's not a journey into the imagination, but to yesteryear. It had a long snout and a long tail like a modern day wolf, but it also had a stocky build, powerful forelimbs, plantigrade feet (i.e. Where modern otters reach for … It weighed about 110 pounds and grew to be the size of a wolf. With their visualization of the head, they could extrapolate how big the body was by comparing its proportions with that of modern otters. Or would it? More information Giant otters the size of wolves "A lot of times in modern carnivores, the large size is partly due to subduing prey, so their prey is bigger and the carnivores also get bigger," Su tells NPR. A study led by the University at Buffalo found the large, prehistoric otter was likely a top predator with a shockingly powerful bite. A comparison of all the otter jaw simulations revealed a linear relationship between jaw stiffness and animal size: Smaller otters had sturdier jaws. An illustration of Siamogale melilutra, a massive wolf-sized otter, in a forest setting. November 9, 2017 ScienceBlog.com. Dr. Denise Su, curator & head of paleobotany and paleoecology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, said: While the cranium is incredibly Unicorns Did Exist. Mississippian culture pottery is the ceramic tradition of the Mississippian culture (800 to 1600 CE) found as artifacts in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast. 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