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Leptophoca

Leptophoca
Temporal range: Miocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Caniformia
Superfamily: Pinnipedia
Family: Phocidae
Genus: Leptophoca
True, 1906
Species
  • L. proxima (van Beneden, 1876) (type species)
  • L. amphiatlantica Koretsky, Ray, and Peters, 2012

Leptophoca is an extinct genus of earless seals from the North Atlantic realm.

Leptophoca lenis was coined by Frederick True for a humerus from the Calvert Formation of Maryland. Later, Clayton Ray referred "Prophoca" proxima from the Antwerp region, Belgium, to Leptophoca. A second nominal Leptophoca species, L. amphiatlantica, was coined for specimens found on both sides of the North Atlantic. A 2017 study found proxima and lenis to be the same species, rendering proxima the epithet of the Leptophoca type species, but evidence for the validity of L. amphiatlantica was deemed weak, rendering amphiatlantica a nomen dubium within Leptophoca.


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Wikipedia

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