Pliophoca

Pliophoca
Temporal range: Miocene - Quaternary
Partial fossil skeleton of Pliophoca etrusca
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Phocidae
Genus: Pliophoca
Tavani, 1941 [1]

Pliophoca is an extinct genus of earless seal in the family Phocidae.

Fossil records

This genus is known in the fossil records from the Miocene to the Quaternary (age range: from 5.332 to 0.0 million years ago). Fossils are found in the marine strata of Italy, Morocco, Spain. Egypt and United States. [2]

Species

Species within this genus include: [2]

This fossil species of seal, ancestor of the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) was found only in the late Pliocene (Piacenzian) areas of Orciano and Volterra in Tuscany. It was a species endemic to the Mediterranean Sea.[3][4]

Fossil skull of Pliophoca etrusca

Bibliography

References

  1. G. Tavani. 1941. Revisione dei resti del pinnipede conservato nel museo di geologia di Pisa. Palaeontographica Italica 40:97-112
  2. 1 2 Paleobiology Database
  3. Pliocene Italiano - Pliophoca etrusca
  4. Annalisa Berta, Sarah Kienlead, Giovanni Bianucci & Silvia Sorbi A Reevaluation of Pliophoca Etrusca (Pinnipedia, Phocidae) from the Pliocene of Italy: Phylogenetic and Biogeographic Implications Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology - Volume 35, Issue 1, 2015
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