A new sea otter from Southern California

Vol, _{XVII, pp} 159-160 October _6, 1904

PROCEEDINGS

_/q^

OFTHE

I

^

BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

X>'''

A NEW SEA OTTER FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

BY

C.

HART IMERRIAM.

The

_Biological

_Survey

has _recently secured

from

Geo.

M.

McGuk'e,

^of Santa Barlmra, ^{the skeleton of}

an

adult

male

sea otter killed July 2, 1904,

on San

_MiguelIsland, the

most

wes- terly of the Santa Barbara or

Channel

Islands, California. Sea otters were formerly aliundant

on

these _islands, but are

now

exceedingly ^rare

and

believed to be rapidly approaching ^ex- tinction^.

Comparison

^{of the skull of this}

specimen

^{with a series of} skulls

from

_{Bering Sea} (the type locality of Ivtris)

shows

^the California

animal

to be a well-marked subspecies. ^It

may

^be

known from

the following description ^:

Latax lutris nereis subsp. nov.

Type from San Miguel Island,SantaBarbara _Islands, California. No.

133,508. Adult male. U.S.National Museum, BiologicalSurvey^Collec- tion. July^{2,1904. Geo.}M. McGuire.

Cranial, characters.

—

Skull _large, broad, and _{high, with long} and high sagittal crest and swollen braincase. Compared ^{with lutris} the following differencesappear^{: Skullasa}wholelessflattened,braincasemoreswollen and _rounded, the sides (viewed fromabove) more convex and swollen, especiallybehindtheconstriction; anterior part ofzygomatamore_broadly and _squarely expanded^; basioccipitalforming an angle with _basisphe-

, noid; coronoid processes sloping stronglybackward; sagittal crest

much

higherandmoredecurved posteriorly^; inner cusp oflarge upper{premo- lar(pm ³)elongated along anteriorpart ofinner lobe_(insteadof_conical) and _showing a tendency ^{to subdivide into} two _parts; 1st lower molar broader andmore_broadlytruncateposteriorly.

Tliespecimen^inthefleshmeasured feetin length.

30—Pkoc. Biol. Soc. Wash._{Vol. XVII,} 1904. (159)