A new otter from the Early Pleistocene of Pantalla (Italy), with remarks on the evolutionary history of Mediterranean Quaternary Lutrinae (Carnivora, Mustelidae)

Rediscovering Lutra lutra from Grotta Romanelli (southern Italy) in the framework of the puzzling evolutionary history of Eurasian otter

“…Lutra sumatrana: m n/a (Pohle 1919); n ZM CN4494 (Zyll de Yong, 1972). Cyrnaonyx antiqua: o-q BM M 34,378 and BM M 50,709 from Tornetown Cave (Willemsen 1992); p Ke RM 226 from Maasvlakte (Willemsen 1992) Despite several fossil otters have been referred to Lutra over the years, many of them are now reassigned to other genera, whereas "Lutra" is retained mainly for ease of reference for taxa of uncertain taxonomy (Willemsen 1992;Cherin et al 2016), recognizing its paraphyletic nature (Geraads et al 2015). L. simplicidens has a relatively abundant fossil record, compared to other Pleistocene Lutrinae.…”

“…However, if Lontra occurred in North American deposits since the Pliocene (Prassack 2016), placing the first appearance of Lutra in a chronological framework is on the contrary complicated by the use of the genus either as a waste-basket taxon, or in sensu lato, to allocate specimens of uncertain affinities and/or Lutra-like morphology (Willemsen 1992; Geraads et al 2015;Cherin et al 2016). In Handling Editor: Irina Ruf.…”

“…However, the whereabouts of the never-figured type material from Montpellier are unknown (Willemsen 1992). Furthermore, the fragmentary remains from the other localities markedly differ in size (Koufos 2011;Montoya et al 2011) and have been suggested to represent different taxa (Cherin et al 2016). Several putative Lutra species have been described from the Pliocene to the Early Pleistocene of Europe (Gervais 1859;Pohle 1919;Kurtén 1968;Willemsen 1992;Fejfar and Sabol 2004), but none of them provides conclusive evidence of their generic status (Cherin et al 2016).…”

“…A long gap characterized the Lutrinae record during the late Pliocene and the beginning of the Early Pleistocene, until the earliest occurrence of Lutra simplicidens and Lutraeximia umbra from the late Villafranchian Upper Valdarno (Tuscany) and Pantalla (Umbria), respectively (Cherin and Rook 2014;Cherin et al 2016). The latter taxon is only known from the holotype cranium, whereas the former is relatively widespread in the early Middle Pleistocene and is regarded as ancestral to several endemic otters of the Mediterranean islands (Willemsen 2006): "Lutra" euxena from Malta, Lutraeximia trinacriae from Sicily, and Sardolutra ichnusae, "Lutra" castiglionis, Algarolutra majori and Megalenhydris barbaricina from Sardinia and Corsica, even though these fossil samples often include few and fragmentary remains (Willemsen 1992;Cherin et al 2016). Nonetheless, the extant Eurasian river otter, Lutra lutra, is considered not related to these European species and its origin is placed in the Asian continent, probably deriving from the fossil species Lutra palaeoindica (Willemsen 1992;Raghavan et al 2007).…”

“…Nonetheless, the extant Eurasian river otter, Lutra lutra, is considered not related to these European species and its origin is placed in the Asian continent, probably deriving from the fossil species Lutra palaeoindica (Willemsen 1992;Raghavan et al 2007). This scenario has received indirect support from the first description of L. simplicidens maxillary dentition, which led Cherin (2017) to doubt of the species generic attribution, remarking the similarities with Lutraeximia umbra (Cherin et al 2016). Alternatively, Fejfar and Sabol (2004) argued for a derivation of the extant Lutra sumatrana from Lutra bravardi Pomel 1843, but excluding a close relationship with L. lutra of the latter species, which is difficult to reconciliate with molecular data that consistently find a close relation between L. lutra and L. sumatrana (Koepfli et al 2008;Hung and Law 2016).…”