The European mink has a large, broad head with short ears that are less specialized for carnivory than that of polecats and the American mink, bearing more infantile features, weaker dentition, and less strongly developed projections.
Compared to the Siberian weasel (Mustela sibirica), the European mink is more compact and less thinly built, thus approaching ferrets and western polecats in build.
The European mink has a large, broad head with short ears. The skull is less elongated than the Siberian weasel’s, with more widely spaced zygomatic arches and the mink has a less massive facial region. In general characteristics, the skull is intermediate in shape between that of the Siberian weasel and the western polecat (Mustela putorius). Overall, the skull is less specialized for carnivory than that of polecats and the American mink (Neovison vison), bearing more infantile features, such as a weaker dentition and less strongly developed projections.
• Image | ©️ Chriest, Some Rights Reserved, (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
• Sources | (Davidson, et al., 2000; Grzimek, 1990; Heptner & Sludskii, 2002; Marmi, López‐Giráldez, & Domingo-Roura, 2004; Shalu, 2001; Sidorovich, 2001; Tumanov & Abramov, 2002; The Wikimedia Foundation, 2020a; Youngman, 1990)
