H,. 



FOSSIL REMAINS. 477 



these animals, Professor J. P. Van Beneclen having already indi- 

 cated thirteen supposed species from the Anvers Basin alone. 

 Quite a number of species have also been described from vari- 

 ous localities in France, Germany, Italy, and the borders of the 

 Black Sea. Various remains of Seals have also been obtaiued 

 from the Quaternary, especially in the British Islands and in Nor- 

 way, but all such i)rove to be closely aUied to if not identical 

 with species still existing- in the neighboring or more northerly 

 seas. No remains of Seals have been reported from beds older 

 than the Upper Miocene, while the greater part have been 

 obtained from deposits referable to the Pliocene. While a de- 

 tailed account of the extraUmital species of extinct Phocids is 

 hardly required in the present connection, a brief resume of the 

 subject may be of iuterest. This wiU be based mainly on the 

 elaborate memoirs on this subject recently published by Van 

 Beneden. * 



Until quite recently very few extinct species of true Pho- 

 cids had been described, most of the remains attributed to this 

 group by the earlier palaeontologists proving on later examina- 

 tion to be mainly referable to Squalodont, Delphinoid, or Xiphoid 

 Cetaceajis. The two fragments considered by Cuvier to be 

 Phocine were found by Blainville to be Sirenian. Of the vari- 

 ous suppositive remains of Seals described by Blainville, Van 

 Beneden claims that in one instance only do they belong posi- 

 tively to this group, this being the foot preserved in the Museum 

 of Pesth, described under the name Phoca halitschensis, which 

 is said to somewhat resemble the corresponding part of the com- 

 mon Phoca mtulina. H. von Meyer's Phoca rugidens turns out 

 to be referable to Squalodon. The same author's Phoca amhigua 

 is allied to Phoca vitulina. Pictet's genus Pachyodonj Van Ben- 

 eden says is Squalodont and not Seal, while the bones referred 

 by the same author to Phoca amhigua, Van Beneden believes 

 was not a fortunate reference. Staring's Phoca ambigua, Van 

 Beneden refers to his own Paheophoca nysti. Some of the bones 

 of Seals from various localities in France referred by Gervais to 

 Pristiophoca occitana are thought by other authorities to be those 

 of Delphinoid or Xiphoid Whales, while Van Beneden consid- 

 ers the Phoca pedroni, Gervais, to be probably also Xiphoid. 

 The Phoca pontica of Xordmann is closely related to P. vitulina 



* See especially this author's maguificeutly illustrated work ou the Fossil 

 Pinnipeds of the Basin of Auvers, forming part one of volume one of the 

 Annales du Mus^e royal d'Histoire naturelle de Belgique, 1877, where the his- 

 torical portion of the subject is presented with considerable detail. 



