The smallest late Miocene phocine from the Southern Caucasus and the Eastern Paratethys seal community crisis

The Caucasus is one of the most important areas for the study of Paratethyan Neogene phocids, with a number of ‘paleorookery’ sites that are still poorly studied. In this study, the remains of a fossil phocine from the Late Miocene locality of Eldari I (late Vallesian/late Sarmatian s.l.) in the Southern Caucasus are described and compared with other Paratethyan phocines. The new materials obtained from the site consists of the right complete forelimb bones along with the carpal and metacarpal bones in natural anatomical articulation and a right innominate bone fragment. Additionally, published remains of ‘Phoca’ procaspica from Eldari I are analysed. Based on morphological and morphometric studies, the Eldari I phocine is assigned to the genus Praepusa. The skeletal material demonstrates a distinct combination of diagnostic traits that can be attributed to the smallest representative of the subfamily, Praepusa procaspica. During the early Late Miocene (10 Ma.), major palaeoecological and palaeogeographic changes took place in the Eastern Paratethyan basin, which significantly decreased the diversity of phocids and had a negative impact on the remnant taxa; this was expressed in the Eldari I and Küçükçekmece seals by the decrease in body size and a change in the feeding apparatus. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:497DEEE9-8557-4136-8AD7-B8749A0285A2