Pachyphoca

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Pachyphoca
Temporal range: Miocene
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Clade: Pinnipedia
Family: Phocidae
Subfamily: Phocinae
Tribe: Cystophorini
Genus: Pachyphoca
Koretsky and Rahmat, 2013
Species
  • P. ukrainicaKoretsky and Rahmat, 2013 (type species)
  • P. chapskiiKoretsky and Rahmat, 2013
  • P. volkodaviTarasenko, 2022

Pachyphoca is an extinct genus of earless seals from Neogene marine deposits in the northern part of the Paratethys basin.

Description

There are two recognized species of Pachyphoca, P. ukrainica and P. chapskii, both of which have been found in Serravallian-Tortonian-aged marine deposits in Ukraine. [1] Pachyphoca ukrainica was the smaller of the two species, and shows more adaptations for terrestrial locomotion compared to the larger P chapskii. [2]

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References

  1. I. A. Koretsky and S. J. Rahmat. 2013. First record of fossil Cystophorinae (Carnivora, Phocidae): Middle Miocene seals from the northern Paratethys. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 119(3):325-350.
  2. Berta, Annalisa (2017). The Rise of Marine Mammals: 50 Million Years of Evolution. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 106. ISBN   9781421423265.