Auroraphoca

Auroraphoca; Temporal range: early Pliocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Clade:	Pinnipedia
Family:	Phocidae
Subfamily:	Monachinae
Genus:	†Auroraphoca; Dewaele, Peredo, Meyvisch, and Louwye, 2018
Species
	A. atlantica Dewaele, Peredo, Meyvisch, and Louwye, 2018 (type species);

Auroraphoca is an extinct genus of earless seals from the early Pliocene of what is now the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.^[1]

Description

Auroraphoca differs from other monachines by the abrupt distal termination of the deltopectoral crest, and the presence of a reduced and distally located epicondylar crest. It is most similar to Pliophoca in the development of the anconeal process on the ulna, and because of this, the holotype USNM 181419 and paratype USNM 250290 were referred to Pliophoca by Koretsky and Ray (2008).^[1]^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b Leonard Dewaele; Carlos Mauricio Peredo; Pjotr Meyvisch; Stephen Louwye (2018). Diversity of late Neogene Monachinae (Carnivora, Phocidae) from the North Atlantic, with the description of two new species. Royal Society Open Science 5 (3): 172437. doi:10.1098/rsos.172437.
^ Koretsky IA, Ray CE. 2008 Phocidae of the Pliocene of Eastern North America. In Geology and paleontology of the Lee Creek Mine, North Carolina, IV (eds CE Ray, DJ Bohaska, IA Koretsky, LW Ward, LG Barnes), pp. 81–140. Virginia Museum of Natural History, Special Publication 14.