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Taxonomy
Australophoca changorum was named by Valenzuela-Toro et al. (2016). Its type specimen is USNM 438707, a partial skeleton (incomplete right ulna, right radius, right and left humeri, and other unidentified remains), and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Aguada de Lomas, which is in a Tortonian foreshore siltstone in the Pisco Formation of Peru.
Synonymy list
| Year | Name and author |
|---|---|
| 2016 | Australophoca changorum Valenzuela-Toro et al. p. 4 figs. Figs. 2-4 |
| 2022 | Australophoca changorum Berta et al. p. 6 figs. Table 1.1 |
| 2024 | Australophoca changorum Rule and Park p. 10 figs. Table 2 |
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If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.
†Australophoca changorum Valenzuela-Toro et al. 2016
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Diagnosis
| Reference | Diagnosis | |
|---|---|---|
| A. Valenzuela-Toro et al. 2016 | Australophoca is a pinniped based on the presence of a short and robust humerus with a prominent deltopectoral crest and a greater and lesser tuberosities enlarged, combined with a short, wide and dorsoventrally flattened femur (Berta and Wyss 1994). It is unequivocally a phocid based in the presence of a hypertrophied astragalar process (= caudal process of the astragalus) and a greatly reduced calcaneal tuberosity, which are considered synapomorphies of Phocidae (Berta and Wyss 1994). Also, the femur of Australophoca lacks a lesser trochanter, as occurs in all phocids. Additionally, Australophoca dif- fers from all other fossil and living phocids by having the combination of: a small inferred adult size, despite exhibiting indicators of physical maturity (i.e. fused epi- physis, low porosity and deep muscle insertions); the possession of a humerus with an elongated deltopectoral crest that is smoothly attenuated in its caudal end, and the absence of an entepicondylar foramen, which is shared by monachine seals (except for the extinct Homiphoca capensis, which exhibits an entepicondylar foramen) a femur with a conspicuous subtrochanteric fossa, similar to Piscophoca, Homiphoca, and in Leptonychotes (see Pierard 1971); a greater trochanter slightly higher than its head; and, lastly, an astragalus and a calcaneum with an elongated sustentacular and ectal facet, similar to Piscophoca. The radius, ulna and innominate are fragmentary, but we assign them to Australophoca based on their relatively small size and by association with more diagnostic material with which they were collected. |
Measurements
No measurements are available
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| Source: f = family, c = class, uc = unranked clade | |||||
| References: Nowak 1991, Carreño and Cronin 1993, Gingerich 2003, Hendy et al. 2009 | |||||