''Pliophoca'' is an extinct
genus of seal in the
family Phocidae.
Fossil record
This genus is known from late Pliocene (
Piacenzian
The Piacenzian is in the international geologic time scale the upper stage (stratigraphy), stage or latest age (geology), age of the Pliocene. It spans the time between 3.6 ± 0.005 year#SI prefix multipliers, Ma and 2.588 ± 0.005 Ma (million yea ...
) marine deposits in northern
Italy. Numerous disassociated monachine remains from the Lee Creek Mine of North Carolina were assigned by Koretsky and Ray (2008), but Berta et al. (2015) rejected the referral and suggested that they may be distinct, which was confirmed by Dewaele et al. (2018), who erected ''
Auroraphoca
''Auroraphoca'' is an extinct genus of earless seals from the early Pliocene 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 ...
'' for two of the Lee Creek specimens that Koretsky and Ray (2008) assigned to ''Pliophoca''.
This fossil species of seal, ancestor of the
Mediterranean monk seal (''Monachus monachus'') has been found only in late
Pliocene (
Piacenzian
The Piacenzian is in the international geologic time scale the upper stage (stratigraphy), stage or latest age (geology), age of the Pliocene. It spans the time between 3.6 ± 0.005 year#SI prefix multipliers, Ma and 2.588 ± 0.005 Ma (million yea ...
) deposits at Orciano and Volterra in
Tuscany. It was a species endemic to the Mediterranean Sea.
[Annalisa Berta, Sarah Kienlead, Giovanni Bianucci & Silvia Sorb]
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
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
* 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
-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
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3906722
Prehistoric carnivoran genera
Monachines
Pliocene pinnipeds
Pinnipeds of Europe
Fossil taxa described in 1941