Homiphoca

Homiphoca is an extinct genus of earless seals from the Pliocene of South Africa.

Homiphoca
Temporal range: Pliocene
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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Clade: Pinnipediformes
Clade: Pinnipedia
Family: Phocidae
Subfamily: Monachinae
Genus: †Homiphoca
Muizon and Hendey, 1980
Species

Taxonomy

The type species of Homiphoca, H. capensis, was originally described as a species of the dubious delphinoid Prionodelphis, P. capensis.[1] Later analysis in 1980 showed that P. capensis was a pinniped and not a cetacean, necessitating erection of the new genus Homiphoca.[2] Cladistic analysis places Homiphoca as a member of Lobodontini, which includes the crabeater, Weddell, Ross, and leopard seals.[3][4]

Fossils

Homiphoca remains are known with certainty only from Langebaanweg, South Africa. Remains from Pliocene deposits in Florida and the Lee Creek Mine, North Carolina, have been referred to the genus, although Berta et al. (2015) questioned this referral based on results of their cladistic analysis of Pliophoca.[5]

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References
  1. Q. B. Hendey and C.A. Repenning. 1972. A Pliocene phocid from South Africa. Annals of the South African Museum 59(4):71-98.
  2. C. Muizon and Q.B. Hendey. 1980. Late Tertiary seals of the South Atlantic Ocean. Annals of the South African Museum 82(3):91-128.
  3. E. Amson and C. Muizon. 2013. A new durophagous phocid (Mammalia: Carnivora) from the late Neogene of Peru and considerations on monachine seals phylogeny. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 12(5):523-548
  4. Romala Govender. (2015) Preliminary phylogenetics and biogeographic history of the Pliocene seal, Homiphoca capensis from Langebaanweg, South Africa. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 70:1, 25-39.
  5. Annalisa Berta, Sarah Kienlead, Giovanni Bianucci & Silvia Sorbi 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
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