On Phoca caspica and PLoca groenlandica. 339 



XXXV. — Phoca caspica and Phoca groenlandica. 

 By Prof. F. A. Smitt. 



For identification of some subfossil bones of a seal which 

 were found several years ago in the glacial marl in the south 

 of Halland (^yest coast of Sweden), and sent to the Royal 

 Museum of Stockholm by the late Senator P. von Moller, 

 I had of course to compare them with the living species 

 of Scandinavian and Arctic seals, but was struck by some 

 discrepancies in all of them. The subfossil bones were the 

 following : — the eight posterior dorsal vertebrae, the live 

 lumbar vertebrae, the sacrum, one caudal vertebra, ribs from 

 the right side nos. I.-XIV., from the left side nos. II.-XV., 

 one of the middle segments of the sternum, the pelvis with 

 the loose os penis, both the femora, the left tibia with the 

 fibula ; of the left foot there were the following bones — astra- 

 galus, calcaneum, scapholdeum, metatarsalia I., II,, IV., and 

 v., and the first phalanges of the five toes. This material 

 cannot be called scanty, and in other circumstances would 

 have been sufficient for a trustworthy determination of the 

 species, as at first sight there could not be more than four 

 species of the European fauna to be taken into consideration, 

 viz. : — Phoca vitulina, Fh.fcetida, Ph. caspica, and Ph. groen- 

 landica, of which the last has already been found once (perhaps 

 twice) in the Swedish glacial marl. 



The two first-named species were easily excluded from the 

 comparison, because, so far as I know, they always have 

 the length of their femur, measured from the lower tip of 

 the inner condyle to the upper tip of the trochanter, more than 

 half the length of the tibia, or, if measured from the middle 

 of the lower margin of the articular (intercondyloid) groove 

 to the upper margin of the collum, more than 40 per cent, of 

 the length of the tibia. As to the other two species, which 

 have the greatest likeness to each other, at first it seemed 

 impossible to refer the subfossil bones to the Phoca groen- 

 landica, because although of comparatively small size they are 

 very strongly ossified. Thus, for instance, in one of our 

 skeletons of Phoca grcenlandica, with a tibial length of 

 224 millim., and with the two above-named femoral measure- 

 ments of 103 and 84 millim. respectively, the epiphyses 

 have not been ankylosed to the respective diaphyses, while in 

 the subfossil skeleton, with a tibial length of 186 millim. and 

 with the two femoral measurements 91 millim. and 73-5 

 millim. respectively, the ossification has completely united the 

 epiphyses and diaphyses; and in this respect the subfossil 



