Pteronarctos is a genus of basal pinnipediform from middle Miocene marine deposits in Oregon.

Pteronarctos
Temporal range: Middle Miocene, 16–11.6 Ma
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Clade: Pinnipediformes
Genus: Pteronarctos
Barnes, 1989
Species
  • P. goedertae Barnes, 1989 (type)
  • P. piersoni Barnes, 1990

Two species of Pteronarctos are known, P. goedertae and P. piersoni. Although originally described as a member of Enaliarctidae, cladistic analyses place Pteronarctos as sister to pinnipeds, in the clade Pinnipediformes.[1][2][3][4][5]

References

edit
  1. ^ L. G. Barnes. 1989. A new enaliarctine pinniped from the Astoria Formation, Oregon, and a classification of the Otariidae (Mammalia: Carnivora). Contributions in Science 403:1-26
  2. ^ L. G. Barnes. 1990. A new Miocene enaliarctine pinniped of the genus Pteronarctos (Mammalia: Otariidae) from the Astoria Formation, Oregon. Contributions in Science 422:1-20
  3. ^ Churchill, Clementz & Kohno (2015) Churchill M, Clementz MT, Kohno N. Cope’s rule and the evolution of body size in Pinnipedimorpha (Mammalia: Carnivora) Evolution. 2015;69(1):201–215. doi: 10.1111/evo.12560.
  4. ^ R. W. Boessenecker and M. Churchill. 2015. The oldest known fur seal. Biology Letters
  5. ^ J. Velez-Juarbe. 2017. Eotaria citrica, sp. nov., a new stem otariid from the “Topanga” formation of Southern California. PeerJ 5:e3022
edit