1922] Kellogg : Pinnipeds from Miocene and Pleistocene Deposits 91 



Georgia in the South Atlantic Ocean, west to Juan Fernandez Island, 

 off the coast of Chili, and in the South Pacific to New Zealand. At 

 present, our collections do not contain sufficient material to confirm 

 the contention of Peters 181 that this last mentioned form really com- 

 prises four distinct species. 



According to morphological evidence, the nearest relative of 

 Mirounga is Cystophora of the North Atlantic Ocean. Until recently 

 it was supposed that Cystophora mitillarum 182 of the West Indies was 

 a hypothetical species. The various circumstances affecting its validity 

 need not be discussed here. Miller 183 has recently published a record 

 of the occurrence of an immature Cystophora that was killed during 

 the winter of 1916 on the beach at Canaveral, Florida. The northern 

 representative, Cystophora cristata 1 ^ ranges from Spitzbergen and 

 Scotland west to Greenland and the Arctic Sea, south to Nova Scotia, 

 and probably occasionally as far south as Maryland. Thus it is evident 

 that the Cystophorinae is the only subfamily of the Phocidae which is 

 present in both Holarctic and Antarctic regions. 



The assumption that Omniatophooa is more closely related to the 

 Cystophorinae than to the Lobodoninae has recently been advocated 

 by Wilson, 185 but as no skeleton was available for study, nothing 

 further can be added to his statement. In this discussion Wilson 

 attempts to show that the genus Mirounga is closely related to the 

 Otariidae. The facts that he has adduced in support of his contention 

 are hardly worthy of acceptance for the establishment of such a rela- 

 tionship. He further cites the long series of characters drawn up by 

 Professor Flower in an effort to prove that Mirounga was more per- 

 fectly adapted to a pelagic life than any other phocid. Undoubtedly, 

 in point of size, this genus has far outstripped the others, but the 

 possession of a short, stout femur, and the rudimentary condition of 

 the calcanear process, do not necessarily mean a high degree of 

 specialization. 



In conclusion it may be said that our knowledge of this subfamily 

 is so unsatisfactory that the solution of its ancestry must await 

 additional discoveries of fossil forms. 



181 Peters, W., Monatsb. K. P. Akad. Wissenscli. zu Berlin, p. 394. 1876. 



182 Gray, J. E., Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 93. 1849. 



183 Miller, G. S., A hooded seal in Florida. Proe. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 

 30, pp. 121-124. 1917. 



184 Erxleben, J. C. P., Systema Regni Animalis, vol. 1, p. 590. Lispius, 1777. 



185 Wilson, E. A, op. (At., vol. 2, pp. 47-48, 57-59. 



