Ancient mitogenomes from Oregon sea otters (Enhydra lutris): genetic and archaeological contributions to the historical ecology of an extirpated population.

The sea otter (Enhydra lutris) was nearly driven to extinction on the Pacific Coast in the 19th century due to the commercial maritime fur trade. Despite successful reintroduction efforts in North America, the Oregon sea otter population remains locally extirpated and endangered. To further address the complex and environmentally important issue of the historical ecology of Northwest Coast sea otters we expand upon previous genetic studies by generating complete mitogenomes from ancient Oregon sea otters and present new data on their mitogenome diversity compared to modern otters from Japan to California.