Pinniped (Mammalia: Carnivora) fossils from Black Rock, a new late Neogene vertebrate locality in Victoria, Australia

Abstract

The fossil record of true seals (Family Phocidae) is notoriously poorly preserved, most notably in the Southern Hemisphere. This fossil record bias has made it difficult to assess whether populations of phocid species in the Southern Hemisphere remained resident in particular regions throughout deep time, with only the eastern South Pacific preserving a near-continuous fossil record. Here we report two new seal fossil remains from the late Miocene-early Pliocene of southeastern Australia, discovered from a new site, Black Rock. This is the fourth phocid fossil site in Australia, and the seventh in Australasia. The two fossils are referrable to the clades Pinnipedia and Monachinae. Combined with other recent fossil phocid finds in Australasia, this suggests that true seals were continuously present in the region at least throughout the Pliocene. This lends further support for the importance of Australasia in the global evolution of true seals.