Kingdom Animalia Family Phocidae Rank Genus | Class Mammalia Phylum Chordata Order Carnivores | |
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Similar Piscophoca, Carnivores, Acrophoca, Imagotaria, Thalassoleon | ||
Pliophoca is an extinct genus of earless seal in the family Phocidae.
Contents
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.
Species
Species within this genus include:
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.
References
Pliophoca Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA