Not So Popular Otters

Pretty much all of the evidence we saw this week pointed toward our lovely large otter Potamotherium being a rather large mustelid rather than a small basal pinniped. The fact that it is a mustelid may impact the popularity of the animal (seals and sea lions in particular are more popular than river otters) as may have the fact that it is a mammal. People tend to love mammals, but they seem to shy away from fossil mammals and turn to the reptiles of the past in terms of what they most often love and awe in paleontology. This is okay, but a bit strange. It also makes interesting furry animals like Potamotherium a lot less successful in the popular science domain than many other animals. The smaller size of Potamotherium makes it easier to disregard as well, though there is no evidence for this kind of trend existing. As a parting note for this week, here is an illustration that was shown earlier in the week with one of the animal's vertebrae. It is pretty spiffy.