''Auroraphoca'' is an extinct genus of

earless seal The earless seals, phocids or true seals are one of the three main groups of mammals within the seal lineage, Pinnipedia. All true seals are members of the family Phocidae (). They are sometimes called crawling seals to distinguish them from th ...

s from the

early Pliocene Early may refer to: History * The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.: ** Early Christianity ** Early modern Europe Places in the United States * Early, Iowa * Early, Texas * Early ...

of what is now the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.Leonard Dewaele; Carlos Mauricio Peredo; Pjotr Meyvisch; Stephen Louwye (2018). Diversity of late Neogene Monachinae (Carnivora, Phocidae) from the North Atlantic, with the description of two new species. ''Royal Society Open Science'' 5 (3): 172437. doi:10.1098/rsos.172437.

Description

''Auroraphoca'' differs from other monachines by the abrupt distal termination of the deltopectoral crest, and the presence of a reduced and distally located epicondylar crest. It is most similar to ''

Pliophoca ''Pliophoca'' is an extinct genus of seal in the family Phocidae. Fossil record This genus is known from late Pliocene (Piacenzian) marine deposits in northern Italy. Numerous disassociated monachine remains from the Lee Creek Mine of North Car ...

'' in the development of the anconeal process on the ulna, and because of this, the holotype USNM 181419 and paratype USNM 250290 were referred to ''Pliophoca'' by Koretsky and Ray (2008).Koretsky IA, Ray CE. 2008 Phocidae of the Pliocene of Eastern North America. In Geology and paleontology of the Lee Creek Mine, North Carolina, IV (eds CE Ray, DJ Bohaska, IA Koretsky, LW Ward, LG Barnes), pp. 81–140. Virginia Museum of Natural History, Special Publication 14.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q55221346 Pliocene pinnipeds Monachines Prehistoric carnivoran genera Prehistoric pinnipeds of North America Fossil taxa described in 2018