480 FAMILY PHOCID^. 



Van Benedeu has remarked, the extinct species of Phocidce pre- 

 sent already the distinctive characters of the group ; the species, 

 however, were more numerous, and they were of larger size.* 

 The remains of Seals discovered in deposits of Quaternary age 

 have all been referred to existing species ; those from the Ter- 

 tiary bear a strong resemblance to existing types, the genus 

 Proplioca, of the Miocene of Anvers, alone, having no very 

 closely related existing representative. The materials on which 

 are based manj^ of the species above enumerated are so scanty, 

 and in many cases so imperfectly preserved, that doubtless addi- 

 tional specimens may show the necessity of somewhat reducing 

 the number, while, on the other hand, others may be added. 



By far the greater part of the remains of Pinnipeds thus far 

 known have been found at the single locality of Anvers, where 

 not only most of the species have been found, but where prob- 

 ably more than nine-tenths of all such remains have thus far 

 been obtained. The Royal Museum of Belgium alone contains 

 upward of five hundred specimens from this locality, which M. 

 Van Beneden has referred to sixteen species and twelve genera. 

 With these remains are associated those of Halitherium, and of 

 various types of Cetaceans. The whole series of the beds con- 

 taining these fossils are regarded by some geologists as Pliocene, 

 but by other good authorities the lower ones of the series are 

 regarded as Upper Miocene. The great Tertiary sea, beneath 

 whose waters these deposits were formed, covered the greater 

 part of Holland, part of Germany, and extended to the coun- 

 ties of iSTorfolk and Suffolk in England, over all of which region 

 the waters prevailed till the close of the Tertiarj^ epoch. 



As has already been shown, in North America few remains of 

 Pinnii^eds have been found, and these, with two exceptions, are 

 all fi?om the Quaternary, and are referable to existing species. 

 The exceptions are the so-called PJioca wymani, based in part 

 at least upon veritable Phocine remains from the Miocene of 

 Eichmond, Virginia, and the enigmatical Lohodon vetus, based 

 on a tooth purporting to have been found at Burlington, New 



* " Nous fiiiirons par cette observation que si tons ces Thalassotli^riena 

 presentent (I6ja les caracteres propres de leur groupe, la seule difference de 

 quelqne importance se rapporte a leur nombre qui si considdrablement 

 r^duit et a leur taille qui a notablement diminu^. ... A I'exception 

 des ossements recueillis dans la sable noir [the Miocene genus Propliocal, 

 tons les autres se rapjiortent a des esp^ces qui raytelleut celles qui vivaient 

 encore dans notre b^misphere, depuis la Floe rat jusqu'au grand Fhoque." 

 Descrip. des Ossem. fos. des Environs d' Anvers, pp. 85, 86. 



