Pliophoca [SEP] parent taxon
Pliophoca
Pliophoca is an extinct genus of seal in the family Phocidae.
Fossil record.
This genus is known from late Pliocene (Piacenzian) marine deposits in northern Italy. Numerous disassociated monachine remains from the Lee Creek Mine of North Carolina were assigned by Koretsky and Ray (2008), but Berta et al. (2015) rejected the referral and suggested that they may be distinct, which was confirmed by Dewaele et al. (2018), who erected "Auroraphoca" for two of the Lee Creek specimens
Auroraphoca
Auroraphoca is an extinct genus of earless seals from the early Pliocene of what is now the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.
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