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 the fur seals and sea lions of the family Otariidae. Seals live in the oceans of both hemispheres and, with the exception of the more tropical monk seals, are mostly confined to polar, subpolar, and temperate climates. The Baikal seal is the only species of exclusively freshwater seal.
Felidae is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats. A member of this family is also called a felid. The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to the domestic cat.
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant in West Asia. The Mediterranean has played a central role in the history of Western civilization. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago.
The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words μείων and καινός and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene is preceded by the Oligocene and is followed by the Pliocene.
The Pliocene is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 million years ago. It is the second and most recent epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch. Prior to the 2009 revision of the geologic time scale, which placed the four most recent major glaciations entirely within the Pleistocene, the Pliocene also included the Gelasian Stage, which lasted from 2.588 to 1.806 million years ago, and is now included in the Pleistocene.
Hippopotamidae is a family of stout, naked-skinned, and semiaquatic artiodactyl mammals, possessing three-chambered stomachs and walking on four toes on each foot. While they resemble pigs physiologically, their closest living relatives are the cetaceans. They are sometimes referred to as hippopotamids.
The Elaeagnaceae are a plant family, the oleaster family, of the order Rosales comprising small trees and shrubs, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, south into tropical Asia and Australia. The family has about 60 species in three genera.
Anas is a genus of dabbling ducks. It includes the pintails, most teals, and the mallard and its close relatives. It formerly included additional species but following the publication of a molecular phylogenetic study in 2009 the genus was split into four separate genera. The genus now contains 31 living species. The name Anas is the Latin for "duck".
The Limacinidae are a family of small sea snails, pteropods, pelagic marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Thecosomata.
Limacina is a genus of swimming predatory sea snails commonly known as sea butterflies in the family Limacinidae. This genus contains some of the world's most abundant gastropod species.
Barbourofelidae is an extinct family of carnivorans of the suborder Feliformia, sometimes known as false saber-toothed cats, that lived in North America, Eurasia and Africa during the Miocene epoch and existed for about 7.9 million years. Thought to be an independent lineage from the Nimravidae and Machairodontinae, which had all attained elongated canines, recent research argues that it may be a subfamily of the Nimravidae, extending its biochronological range into the Miocene, although this issue is not yet fully resolved.
Obinautilus is an extinct genus of shelled cephalopod that has been variously identified as an argonautid octopod or a nautilid. It is known from the Late Oligocene to Pliocene of Japan. The shell is discoidal and very involute, with rapidly expanding and compressed whorls, fine radial ribs, a rounded venter with a shallow furrow, and almost closed umbilicus.
†Argonauta absyrtus is an extinct species of octopus assigned to the genus Argonauta.
Peraclidae is a family of pelagic sea snails or "sea butterflies", marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Cymbulioidea.
The family Cavoliniidae is a taxonomic group of small floating sea snails, pelagic marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusks.
Oxygyrus keraudrenii is a species of sea snail, a holoplanktonic marine gastropod mollusk in the family Atlantidae.
Protatlanta rotundata is an extinct species of sea snail, a holoplanktonic marine gastropod mollusk in the family Atlantidae.
Evalea is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Pyramidellidae, the pyrams and their allies.
Spirotropis is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Drilliidae.
Orcinus meyeri is a fossil species of Orcinus found in the Early Miocene deposits of southern Germany, known from two jaw fragments and 18 isolated teeth. It was originally described as Delphinus acutidens in 1859, but reclassified in 1873. Its validity is disputed, and it may be a synonymous with the ancient sperm whale Physeterula dubusi. It was found in the Alpine town of Stockach in the Molasse basin, which was a coastal area with strong tidal currents.
