Pusa Scopoli 1771

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Carnivora, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 532-628 : 600

Pusa Scopoli 1771

Pusa Scopoli 1771 , Introductio ad historiam naturalem: 490.

Type Species: Phoca foetica Fabricius 1776

Synonyms: Caspiopusa Dybowski 1929 .

Species and subspecies: 3 species with 5 subspecies:

Species Pusa caspica Gmelin 1788

Species Pusa hispida Schreber 1775

Subspecies Pusa hispida subsp. hispida Schreber 1775

Subspecies Pusa hispida subsp. botnica Gmelin 1788

Subspecies Pusa hispida subsp. ladogensis Nordquiest 1899

Subspecies Pusa hispida subsp. ochotensis Pallas 1811

Subspecies Pusa hispida subsp. saimensis Nordquist 1899

Species Pusa sibirica Gmelin 1788

Discussion: Burns and Fay (1970), Rice (1977), McDermid and Bonner (1975), Gromov and Baranova (1981), King (1983), and Wyss (1988) considered Phoca , Pusa , Histriophoca , and Pagophilus a monophyletic group. Cladistic analysis based on morphology and mtDNA reveal two clades, Pagophilus + Histriophoca and Phoca + Pusa + Halichoerus ( Carr and Perry, 1998; Mouchaty et al., 1995; Muizon, 1982 b; Perry et al., 1995; Rice, 1998). Burns and Fay (1970) and McDermid and Bonner (1975) argued that these differences should be recognized only at the subgeneric level.