Editing Sea mink (section)

==Taxonomy and etymology==
[[File:MinkforWiki.jpg|thumb|right|The closely related American mink (''Neogale vison'')|alt=A wet American mink with pale brown fur, dark brown eyes, long fingers, and a skinny tail. Its head is turned to the right and it is standing on a rock next to water.]]

The sea mink was first [[Species description|described]] as ''Lutreola macrodon'', [[Speciation|distinct]] from the American mink, by [[wikisource:Author:Daniel Webster Prentiss|Daniel Webster Prentiss]], a medical doctor and [[ornithologist]], in 1903, after it became [[extinct]]. Prentiss based his description on skull fragments recovered from Native American [[shell midden]]s in [[New England]]. Most sea mink remains, nearly all of them skull fragments, have come from shell middens, but a complete specimen has never been found.<ref name=Sealfon07/><ref name=prentiss>{{cite journal|url=https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/13698/USNMP-26_1336_1903.pdf|first=D. W.|last=Prentiss|year=1903|title=Description of an extinct mink from the shell-heaps of the Maine coast|journal= Proceedings of the United States National Museum|volume=26|issue=#1336|pages=887–888|doi=10.5479/si.00963801.26-1336.887}}</ref>

Debate has occurred regarding whether the sea mink was its own [[species]], or another subspecies of the [[American mink]]. Those who argue that the sea mink was a subspecies often refer to it as ''Neovison vison macrodon''.<ref name=graham2001/><ref>{{cite book|title=Mammals of North America|year=2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-6911-4092-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YjIIRZwbWIEC&pg=PA180|edition=2nd|last1=Kays|first1=R. W.|last2=Wilson| first2=D. E.|page=180|oclc=880833145|location=Boston, Massachusetts}}</ref> A study in 1911 by [[Frederic Brewster Loomis]], an American [[paleontologist]], concluded that the differences between the American mink and the sea mink were too minute to justify the latter's classification as a separate species, and he named it ''Lutreola vison antiquus''.<ref name=loomis>{{cite journal|first=F. B.|last=Loomis|year=1911|title=A new mink from the shell-heaps of Maine|journal=American Journal of Science|volume=31|issue=#183|pages=227–229|doi= 10.2475/ajs.s4-31.183.227|bibcode=1911AmJS...31..227L|url={{google books|plainurl=yes|id=lzlSAQAAMAAJ|page=227}}}}</ref> A study conducted in 2000 by Mead et al. refuted Loomis by claiming that the size range for the largest sea mink specimen was beyond that of the American mink, thereby making it a separate species.<ref name=mead/> But a 2001 study by Graham concluded that this size difference was insufficient evidence to classify the sea mink as its own species and that it should be considered a subspecies. Graham supposed that the size difference was caused by environmental factors. Furthermore, Graham reported that Mead assumed the smaller mink specimens to be the American mink, and the larger mink specimens outside the range of the American mink to be sea minks; this may have been a case of [[sexual dimorphism]] wherein all specimens were sea minks, the larger ones being males and the smaller ones being females.<ref name=graham2001/> A 2007 study compared the dental makeup of the sea mink to the American mink, and concluded that they were distinct enough to be considered two separate species.<ref name=Sealfon07/>

{{Cladogram|title=New World weasels|align=right|caption=Relations of the sea mink within [[Mustelinae]]<ref>{{cite journal|first1=K.|last1=Nyakatura|first2=O. R. P.|last2=Bininda-Emonds|year=2012|title=Updating the evolutionary history of Carnivora (Mammalia): a new species-level supertree complete with divergence time estimates|journal=BMC Biology|volume=10|issue=#12|pages=12|doi=10.1186/1741-7007-10-12|pmc=3307490|pmid=22369503 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
|cladogram={{clade |style=font-size:90%; line-height:65%;width:300px;
|label1=[[Mustelinae]]
|1={{clade
|1={{clade
|1={{clade
|1=''[[Amazon weasel|Neogale africana]]''
|2=''[[Colombian weasel|Neogale felipei]]''
}}
|2=''[[Long-tailed weasel|Neogale frenata]]''
}}
|2={{clade
|1=''[[American mink|Neogale vison]]''
|2='''''Neogale macrodon'''''
}}
}}
}}
}}

The taxonomy of the minks was revised in 2000, resulting in the formation of a new [[genus]], ''[[Neovison]]'', which includes only the sea mink and the American mink. Formerly, both minks were classified in the genus ''[[Mustela]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://bionames.org/bionames-archive/issn/0320-9180/8/357.pdf|first=A. V.|last=Abramov|title=A taxonomic review of the genus ''Mustela'' (Mammalia, Carnivora)|journal=Zoosystematica Rossica|year=2000|volume=8|pages=357–364}}</ref> The species name ''macrodon'' translates to "large teeth".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scotcat.com/scientific_names/scientific_namesm.html|title=Etymology pages "M"|publisher=www.scotcat.com|access-date=16 August 2017}}</ref> According to Richard Manville, a naturalist who maintains that the sea mink is not a separate species, its closest relative is the common mink (''N.&nbsp;v.&nbsp;mink''), which also inhabits the New England area.<ref name=manville/> A 2021 study into [[New World]] weasels found that the sea mink, along with four other extant species, should be classified into a new genus, ''Neogale''.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Bruce D. |last1=Patterson |first2=Héctor E. |last2=Ramírez-Chaves |first3=Júlio F. |last3=Vilela |first4=André E. R. |last4=Soares |first5=Felix |last5=Grewe 
|title=On the nomenclature of the American clade of weasels (Carnivora: Mustelidae) 
|journal=Journal of Animal Diversity |volume=3 |issue=2 |year=2021 |pages=1–8 |issn=2676-685X |doi=10.52547/JAD.2021.3.2.1 |s2cid=236299740 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

[[Fur trade]]rs who hunted it gave the sea mink various names, including water marten, red otter, and fisher cat. Possibly the first description of this species was made by Sir [[Humphrey Gilbert]]
in the late 1500s as "a fish like a [[greyhound]]", which was a reference to its affinity for the sea and its body shape and gait, which were apparently similar to that of a greyhound. It is possible that the [[Fisher (animal)|fisher]] (''Pekania pennanti'') got its name from being mistakenly identified as the sea mink, which was also known as the fisher by fur traders.<ref name=mowat>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dBiWBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA160|first= F.|last=Mowat|orig-year=1984|year=2012|title=Sea of slaughter|publisher=Douglas and McIntyre|pages=160–164|isbn=978-1-77100-046-8|oclc=879632158|location=Vancouver, British Columbia}}</ref> The [[Abenaki]] Indians referred to it as the "mousebeysoo", which means "wet thing".<ref name=manville/> It was named "sea mink" because it was always found near the coast by fur traders, and subsequently the American mink was often referred to as the "woods mink".<ref name=manville/><ref name=hollister/>