Family Phocidae Gray, 1821 . London Med. Repos., 15:297.

COMMENTS: Reviewed by Chapskii (1955), Scheffer (1958), J. E. King (1966, 1983), Hendey (1972), Muizon (1982a), and Wyss (1989). Muizon (1982«), and Wyss's (1988) phylogenetic analyses agreed on three areas: 1) The monophyletic nature of two groups they refer to as the Lobodontini ( Hydrurga, Leptonychotes, Lobodon, and Ommatophoca), and the Phocinae (Erignathus, Cystophora, Halichoerus, and Phoca), 2) The lobodonts, along with Monachus and Mirounga have been traditionally refered to as the Monachinae (kept by Muizon), however, they both suggested that this group may be paraphyletic, 3) Because of the "unsettled" nature of these taxa, no subfamilies are recognized at this time.