Diversity of late Neogene Monachinae (Carnivora, Phocidae) from the North Atlantic, with the description of two new species

While the diversity of ‘southern seals’, or Monachinae, in the North Atlantic realm is currently limited to the Mediterranean monk seal, Monachus monachus, their diversity was much higher during the late Miocene and Pliocene. Although the fossil record of Monachinae from the North Atlantic is mainly composed of isolated specimens, many taxa have been erected on the basis of fragmentary and incomparable specimens. The humerus is commonly considered the most diagnostic postcranial bone. The research presented in this study limits the selection of type specimens for different fossil Monachinae to humeri and questions fossil taxa that have other types of bones as type specimens, such as for Terranectes parvus. In addition, it is essential that the humeri selected as type specimens are (almost) complete. This questions the validity of partial humeri selected as type specimens, such as for Terranectes magnus. This study revises Callophoca obscura, Homiphoca capensis and Pliophoca etrusca, all purportedly known from the Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, in addition to their respective type localities in Belgium, South Africa and Italy, respectively. C. obscura is retained as a monachine seal taxon that lived both on the east coast of North America and in the North Sea Basin. However, H. capensis from North America cannot be identified beyond the genus level, and specimens previously assigned to Pl. etrusca from North America clearly belong to different taxa. Indeed, we also present new material and describe two new genera of late Miocene and Pliocene Monachinae from the east coast of North America: Auroraphoca atlantica nov. gen. et nov. sp., and Virginiaphoca magurai nov. gen. et nov. sp. This suggests less faunal interchange of late Neogene Monachinae between the east and west coasts of the North Atlantic than previously expected

The first possible remingtonocetid stem whale from North America

Remingtonocetid cetaceans are a group of stem whales known from the Indo-Pakistan and North African Tethys Ocean. An unusual tooth was discovered by Peter J. Harmatuk in 1973 in the middle Eocene Superior Stone Quarry (now the Martin Marietta Quarry) near Castle Hayne, North Carolina, USA. Here we identify this tooth as a premolar of a possible member of the Remingtonocetidae, which would extend the range of this family across the Atlantic to eastern North America. This partial tooth includes most of the crown (missing the mesial end) and the posterior root. The tooth bears a single central cusp and a worn accessory cusp on the posterior end. This tooth most closely resembles premolars of Remingtonocetus and is rather dissimilar to premolars of other archaeocetes known from the middle Eocene of North America, such as the families Protocetidae and Basilosauridae. This new record potentially expands the geographic distribution of the amphibious cetacean family Remingtonocetidae across the Atlantic

Experimental Determination of the CH4 and CO2 Pure Gas Adsorption Isotherms on Different Activated Carbons

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