''Noriphoca'' is an extinct genus of

phocid The earless seals, phocids or true seals are one of the three main groups of mammals within the seal lineage, Pinnipedia. All true seals are members of the family Phocidae (). They are sometimes called crawling seals to distinguish them from th ...

belonging to the subfamily

Monachinae Monachinae (known colloquially as "Southern seals") is a subfamily of Phocidae whose distribution is found in the tropical, temperate and polar regions of the southern hemisphere, though in the distant past fossil representatives have been foun ...

. It is known from the late Oligocene to early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Species

The type species of ''Noriphoca'', ''N. gaudini'', was originally named ''Phoca gaudini'' on the basis of a skull from late Oligocene to earliest Miocene deposits in Chiento, Italy. Later authors referred it to either '' Monotherium'', '' Pristiphoca'', or the physeteroid genus '' Paleophoca''. However, it was later shown that ''P. gaudini'' cannot be referred to ''Monotherium'' as the latter was probably phocine and not monachine, and erected ''Noriphoca'' for the stem-monachine species ''P. gaudini''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q53014899 Miocene pinnipeds Prehistoric carnivoran genera Monachines Chattian first appearances Aquitanian extinctions Prehistoric pinnipeds of Europe Fossil taxa described in 2018