Desmatophoca

Desmatophoca
Temporal range: Early Miocene–Middle Miocene
Desmatophoca oregonensis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Clade: Pinnipedia
Family: †Desmatophocidae
Genus: †Desmatophoca
Condon, 1906
Species
  • D. brachycephala Barnes, 1987
  • D. oregonensis Condon, 1906 (type species)

Desmatophoca is an extinct genus of early pinniped that lived during the Miocene, and is named from the Greek "phoca", meaning seal. A taxon of the family Desmatophocidae, it shares some morphological similarities with modern true seals.[1] Two species are recognized: Desmatophoca oregonensis and Desmatophoca brachycephala[2]. Little information exists regarding Desmatophoca, due to the small number of fossil samples obtained and identified.

Unlike modern pinnipeds, Desmatophoca did not survive into the Holocene.[2] There is some scientific debate as to whether any Desmatophoca species may have been present in the Oligocene, but without fossil samples obtained from this era, this is based primarily on conjecture.[1] All samples of fossil Desmatophoca were found in marine deposits in Washington and Oregon, in the USA, which could indicate a geographic range of what is now the Pacific Northwest.[3]

  1. ^ a b Ray, C. (1976). Fossil Marine Mammals of Oregon. Systematic Zoology, 25(4), 420-436.
  2. ^ a b Berta, A. (1994). A New Species of Phocoid Pinniped Pinnarctidion from the Early Miocene of Oregon. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 14(3), 405-413.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).