PHOCINAE Gray, 1821

Gol’din, Pavel, Haiduc, Bogdan Stelian, Kovalchuk, Oleksandr, Górka, Marcin, Otryazhyi, Pavlo, Brânzilă, Mihai, Păun, Elena Ionela, Barkaszi, Zoltán, Ţibuleac, Paul & Răţoi, Bogdan Gabriel, 2020, The Volhynian (late Middle Miocene) marine fishes and mammals as proxies for the onset of the Eastern Paratethys re-colonisation by vertebrate fauna, Palaeontologia Electronica (a 43) 23 (3), pp. 1-20 : 8

Subfamily PHOCINAE Gray, 1821 Phocinae indet. 1

Figure 4

Material and locality. Vertebrae, ribs, scapula, and forelimb bones; Kolubaivtsi.

Specific features of anatomy. The material was identified as a member of the Phocinae by the presence of an epicondylar foramen in the humerus ( Dewaele et al., 2018a). Meanwhile, it shares a high trochlear crest of the humerus with Monachinae ( Koretsky and Grigorescu, 2002; Dewaele et al., 2018b). It is characterised by a smooth distal termination of the long deltopectoral crest reaching the condyle, and a relatively straight posterior margin of the ulna.

Comparison. The specimen has a body size comparable to phocine seals found in later (Bessarabian) deposits of the Eastern Paratethys. It is larger than Monachopsis pontica , and similar in size to Cryptophoca maeotica ( Koretsky, 2001) . The humerus has a well-defined trochlear crest larger than that in most of other Paratethyan phocines. The deltoid crest is as long as that in Sarmatonectes sintsovi ( Koretsky, 2001) .

Figures

FIGURE 4. The partial skeleton of a true seal (Phocinae indet. 1) from the Volhynian beds of Kolubaivtsi (Ukraine). Scale bar equals 10 cm.