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The origin of elephant seals: implications of a fragmentary late Pliocene seal (Phocidae: Miroungini) from New Zealand

ABSTRACT Elephant seals (Phocidae: Miroungini) are conspicuous members of modern marine mammal communities but have a meagre fossil record, obscuring the origins of this charismatic clade. We describe the oldest record for the group, CD 35, representing fragments of the maxilla, squamosal, as well as the P2, P3, and possible P1 from the Late Pliocene of the Petane Formation of New Zealand. This fossil possesses several features found only in Miroungini, including simplified triple-cusped teeth with smooth enamel that lack a cingulum, a reduced M1 and possession of a probable prenarial shelf. It also retains plesiomorphic features absent in Mirounga, such as double-rooted P2–4, which retain the parastyle and metacone. This fossil supports a Southern Hemisphere origin for elephant seals, consistent with recent phylogenetic analyses, and refutes previous suggestions of a North Atlantic origin for the clade.