Phocanella is an extinct genus of earless seals from the early Pliocene of Belgium and the US Eastern Seaboard.

Phocanella
Temporal range: Pliocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Clade: Pinnipedia
Family: Phocidae
Subfamily: Phocinae
Genus: Phocanella
van Beneden, 1876
Species

The type and only species of Phocanella is P. pumila. The second nominal Phocanella species, P. minor, is a synonym. Two additional taxa referred to the genus, P. couffoni and P. straeleni, are nomina dubia.[1][2]

References edit

  1. ^ Van Beneden P-J. 1877. Description des ossements fossiles des environs d’Anvers, première partie. Pinnipèdes ou amphithériens. Annales du Musée Royal d’Histoire Naturelle de Belgique 1:1–88.
  2. ^ I. A. Koretsky and A. M. M. Peters. 2008. Batavipusa (Carnivora, Phocidae, Phocinae): a new genus from the eastern shore of the North Atlantic Ocean (Miocene seals of the Netherlands, part II). Deinsea 12:53-62.