Thalassoleon

Thalassoleon
Temporal range: Late Miocene
Thalassoleon mexicanus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Caniformia
Superfamily: Pinnipedia
Family: Otariidae
Gray, 1825
Genus: Thalassoleon
Repenning and Tedford 1977
Species
  • T. inouei?
  • T. macnallyae
  • T. mexicanus

Thalassoleon is an extinct genus of large fur seal. Thalassoleon inhabited the Northern Pacific ocean in latest Miocene and early Pliocene time. Fossils of T. mexicanus are known from Baja California and southern California. T. macnallyae is known from central California, and T. inouei (which may be a synonym of T. macnallyae) is known from Japan. Thalassoleon could be the ancestor of the modern Northern Fur Seal.

T. mexicanus was comparable in size to the largest fur seals, with an estimated weight of 650-700 lbs.[1] T. macnallyae, based on size of the mandible, may have grown much larger, similar in size to a walrus.

References

  1. Geological Survey professional paper, Volume 992 By Geological Survey (U.S.)