﻿AEKIV FÖR ZOOLOGI. 



BAND 4. N:o 12. 



On tlie Clawless Otter of Central Africa (Lutra 



capensis liindei Thomas) and biological adapta- 



tions of African Clawless otters. 



By 

 EINAR LÖNNBERG. 



With 1 plate and 2 Figs. in the text. 

 Read Januari 8th 1908. 



A t the end of Dec. 1907 the Natural History Museum 

 was favoured by receiving from Mr. A. Sandberg as a gift 

 the skin and skull of a Clawless otter. The specimens were 

 in a splendid condition and had been procured by Mr. Sand- 

 berg himself in Rhodesia where the otter was shot at a tri- 

 butary of upper Zambeze about 13° S. lat. the 26th of July 

 1907."^ 



A glance at the skull of this specimen is enough to pro ve 

 that it does not belong to the typical Lutra capensis. It is 

 the skull of an adult male which has attained such an age 

 that all sutures are completely ossified and invisible. In 

 spite of this the skull is considerably smaller and much more 

 slenderly built than the skull of a typical Lutra capensis 

 from Pieter Maritzburg, Natal, which specimen ^ aJso is an 

 old male. On the other hand, Mr. Sandberg's otter closely 

 agrees w^th the one recently described by Oldfield Thomas^ 

 from .British East Africa under the name Lutra capensis hindei. 



^ Killed ^/c, 1842 by the famous explorer Wahlberg. 

 ^ Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (7). Vol. 15, p. 78. 



Arkiv för zoologi. Band 4. N:o 12. 1 



