Megalenhydris barbaricina is an extinct species of giant otter from the Late Pleistocene of Sardinia. It is known from a single partial skeleton, discovered in the Grotta di Ispinigoli near Dorgali, and was described in 1987.[1] It was larger than any living otter, exceeding the size of South American giant otters (Petrolutra), which can reach two meters in length.[2][3] The species is one of four extinct otter species from Sardinia and Corsica. The others are Algarolutra majori, Lutra castiglionis[4] and Sardolutra ichnusae.[5] It is suggested to have ultimately originated from the much smaller European mainland species "Lutra" simplicidens[5], which may be more closely related to Lutrogale than to modern Lutra species.[6] The structure of the teeth points to a diet of bottom dwelling fish and crustaceans.[5] A special characteristic of the species is the flattening of the first few caudal vertebrae (the remainder of the caudal vertebrae are not known). This might point to a slightly flattened tail.
^G. F. Willemsen & A. Malatesta (1987). "Megalenhydris barbaricina sp. nov., a new otter from Sardinia". Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, B. 90: 83–92.
^Pereira, E., and M. Salotti. "Cyrnolutra castiglionis, a new otter (Mustelidae, Lutrinae) from the Middle Pleistocene'Castiglione 3CG'deposit (Oletta, Corsica)." Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Séries IIA 331.1 (2000): 45-52. [1]
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