''Leptophoca'' 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 North Atlantic realm.

Taxonomy

''Leptophoca lenis'' was coined by Frederick True for a humerus from the

Calvert Formation The Calvert Formation is a geologic formation in Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware. It preserves fossils dating back to the early to middle Miocene epoch of the Neogene period. The formation is a destination for amateur fossil hunters as well as pr ...

of Maryland. Later, Clayton Ray referred ''"Prophoca" proxima'' from the Antwerp region, Belgium, to ''Leptophoca''. A second nominal ''Leptophoca'' species, ''L. amphiatlantica'', was coined for specimens found on both sides of the North Atlantic. A 2017 study found ''proxima'' and ''lenis'' to be the same species, rendering ''proxima'' the epithet of the ''Leptophoca'' type species, but evidence for the validity of ''L. amphiatlantica'' was deemed weak, rendering ''amphiatlantica'' a ''nomen dubium'' within ''Leptophoca''.Dewaele L, Lambert O, Louwye S. (2017) On Prophoca and Leptophoca (Pinnipedia, Phocidae) from the Miocene of the North Atlantic realm: redescription, phylogenetic affinities and paleobiogeographic implications. PeerJ 5:e3024 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3024

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16948102 Miocene pinnipeds Phocines Prehistoric carnivoran genera Prehistoric pinnipeds of North America Fossil taxa described in 1906