''Cyrnaonyx'' is an extinct

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of Lutrinae,

otters Otters are carnivorous mammals in the Rank (zoology), subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic animal, aquatic, or Marine ecology, marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae Family (biology), family, whi ...

from the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

. It was originally described by Helbing based on materials from France and he also attributed material from

Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...

to it. The latter appeared to belong to another species and genus, '' Algarolutra majori''. The only species of ''Cyrnaonyx'' is ''C. antiqua''. It is known from the Pleistocene (Holsteinian to Eemian/ Weichselian) of Europe: France, Germany, Netherlands, Southern England and probably Italy. The dentition is more robust than in the common otter '' Lutra'' and the diet probably consisted of more crustaceans and less fish, like in modern '' Aonyx''. The skull was however not arched as in the latter which points to a more aquatic, swimming behaviour.

Sources

* Malatesta, A. & Willemsen, G. F.: Algarolutra g.n. established for a fossil otter of the Sardinia island. Geologica Romana 25: 285-286 (1986) * Willemsen, G. F.: A revision of the Pliocene and Quaternary Lutrinae from Europe. Scripta Geologica vol 101 (1992). Prehistoric mustelids Pleistocene carnivorans Monotypic prehistoric carnivoran genera Pleistocene mammals of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1935 {{paleo-carnivora-stub