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 |
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. [1]
Species
Species within this genus include: [1]
- Pliophoca etrusca Tavani 1941 †
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.[2][3]
Fossil skull of Pliophoca etrusca
Bibliography
- G. Tavani. 1941. Revisione dei resti del pinnipede conservato nel museo di geologia di Pisa. Palaeontographica Italica 40:97-112
- T. A. Demere, A. Berta, and P. J. Adam. 2003. Pinnipedimorph evolutionary biogeography. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 279:32-76
- A. Koretsky and C. E. Ray. 2008. Phocidae of the Pliocene of eastern USA. Virginia Museum of Natural History Special Publication 14:81-140
- Roberto Lawley. 1875. Pesci ed altri vertebrati fossili del pliocene toscano. Letta all'adunanza della Società Toscana di Scienze Naturali. Pisa, Tipografia Nistri
- Roberto Lawley. 1876. Nuovi studi sopra ai pesci ed altri vertebrati fossili delle Colline Toscane. Firenze. Tipografia dell’Arte della Stampa.
- R. Ugolini. 1902. Il Monachus albiventer BODD. del pliocene di Orciano. Palaeontographia Italica. Volume VIII. pag. 1-20, tav. I-III [I-III], fig. 1.
- R. Ugolini. 1902. Resti di foche fossili italiane. Atti Soc. Tosc. di Sc. Nat. Pisa, Memorie, vol.XIX, 1902, pag.13, con 1 tav. -
References
- 1 2 Paleobiology Database
- ↑ Pliocene Italiano - Pliophoca etrusca
- ↑ 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
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, November 23, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.