Those who argue that the sea mink was a subspecies often refer to it as Neovison vison macrodon.[1][2] 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.[3] 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.[4] 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.