Osmotherium is an extinct genus of skunk from Pleistocene North America. it contains a single species, Osmotherium spelaeum.[1] The genus name, Osmotherium, hails from Aincient Greek, osmḗ, "smell"; and therium, "beast"; meaning smelly beast. The species name, spelaeum, Latin for "cave", in reference to the sole locality which its remains have been found in, Port Kennedy Bone Cave.
| Osmotherium Temporal range: Pleistocene
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| Genus: | Osmotherium Cope, 1896
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| Osmotherium spelaeum Cope, 1896
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While fragmentary, Osmotherium spelaeum's jaws are the most prominent of any other Mephitid in the locality, with Cope himself describing 6 different specimens, although attributing some to Mephitis, Brachyprotoma and the now defunct Pelycictis.[2][3][4]
While information on these fragmentary remains scarce, in 2005 Wang et al.'s description of Martinogale faulli, Osmotherium was recovered as a sister genus to Mephitis: [5]
References
edit- ^ Cope, E. D. (1896). "New and Little Known Mammalia from the Port Kennedy Bone Deposit". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 48: 378–394.
- ^ Cope, E. D. (1899). "Vertebrate remains from Port Kennedy bone deposits". Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 11: 193–286.
- ^ Hall, E. R. (1936). Mustelid Mammals from the Pleistocene of North America: With Systematic Notes on Some Recent Members of the Gerera Mustela, Taxidea and Mephitis.
- ^ Daeschler, E., Spamer, E. E., & Parris, D. C. (1993). Review and new data on the Port Kennedy local fauna and flora (Late Irvingtonian), Valley Forge National Historical Park, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The Mosasaur, 5, 23–41.
- ^ Wang, Xiaoming; Whistler, David P.; Takeuchi, Gary T. (2005-12-30). "A new basal skunk Martinogale (Carnivora, Mephitinae) from Late Miocene Dove Spring Formation, California, and origin of New World mephitines". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 25 (4): 936–949. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0936:ANBSMC]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0272-4634.
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