The discovery was part of a collaboration between the Yunnan Cultural Relics and Archaeological Institute in Yunnan Province, China and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
The extinct animal was named Siamogale Melilutra because it shares characteristics with modern otters and badgers, said Denise Su, curator of paleobotany and paleoecology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
“This species has a mix of characteristics of both these animals in its skull and its teeth,” Su explained.
It’s one of the largest otters ever discovered, about “the size of a modern wolf,” she said.
The fossilized skull was found in Yunnan Province and included a cranium and lower jaw that is much larger than that of the modern-day otter.
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