Genus
Phoca
Phoca vitulina richardii. Photo: (c) Igor Derevskov, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
Phoca is a genus of the earless seals, within the family Phocidae. It now contains just two species, the common seal and the spotted seal (or largha seal). Several species formerly listed under this genus have been split into the genera Pusa, Pagophilus, and Histriophoca. For this reason, the fossil history of the genus is unclear, and it has formerly been used as wastebasket taxon for a number of fossils of uncertain affinity.
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