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Skeleton of Extinct North American Sea Mink (Mustela macrodon)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jim I. Mead ,
Arthur E. Spiess  and
Kristin D. Sobolik
Jim I. Mead
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Quaternary Studies Program, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011, and The Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona, E-mail: James.Mead@nau.edu
Arthur E. Spiess
Affiliation:
Maine Historic Preservation Commission, 55 Capitol Street, Augusta, Maine 04333
Kristin D. Sobolik
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04473
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Abstract

Mustela macrodon (extinct sea mink) is known only from prehistoric and historic Native American shell middens dating less than 5100 years old along coastal islands of the Gulf of Maine, northeastern North America. The species is distinct from all known extant subspecies of M. vison (American mink) but still belongs to the North American subgenus Vison. Metric comparisons between M. macrodon and five subspecies of M. vison, using skull, mandible, humerus, radius, femur, and tibia skeletal elements, show that M. macrodon is larger in overall size and robustness and is proportionately larger in the dental region. Many habitat-related parallels exist between coastal island mink of the Gulf of Maine and those of the Alexander Archipelago, southeastern Alaska, where the overall largest living subspecies of mink is found (M. v. nesolestes).

Keywords

extinct sea minkMustela macrodonnortheastern North AmericaMaine
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , March 2000 , pp. 247 - 262
Copyright
University of Washington

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