Frisiphoca

Frisiphoca is an extinct genus of phocid belonging to the subfamily Phocinae. It is known from fossils found in the late Miocene of Belgium.

Frisiphoca Temporal range: Tortonian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Parvorder:	Pinnipedia
Family:	Phocidae
Subfamily:	Phocinae
Genus:	†Frisiphoca Dewaele, Lambert, and Louwye, 2018
Species
F. aberratum (van Beneden, 1876) (type) F. affine (van Beneden, 1876)

Taxonomy

There are two species of Frisiphoca, F. aberratum and F. affine. Both were previously assigned to Monotherium,^[1] but Dewaele et al. (2018) found those species generically distinct from the Monotherium type species and placed them in their own genus, Frisiphoca.^[2]

Fossils

Fossils of Frisiphoca aberratum and F. affine occur in the Tortonian-age Diest Formation of the vicinity of Antwerp, Belgium.^[1] Ray (1976) tentatively referred to F. aberratum a humerus from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.^[3]