Pagophilus Gray 1844

Pagophilus Gray 1844, Zool. Voy. H. M. S. "Erebus" and "Terror", Vol. 1: 3.

Type Species: Phoca groenlandica Erxleben 1777

Synonyms: Callocephalus Heuglin 1874; Haliphilus J. E. Gray 1866; Pagomys Gray 1864; Pagophoca Trouessart 1904 .

Species and subspecies: 1 species:

Species Pagophilus groenlandicus (Erxleben 1777)

Discussion: Burns and Fay (1970), Rice (1977), McDermid and Bonner (1975), Gromov and Baranova (1981), King (1983), and Wyss (1988) considered Phoca, Pusa, Histriophoca, and Pagophilus a monophyletic group. Cladistic analysis based on morphology and mtDNA reveal two clades, Pagophilus + Histriophoca and Phoca + Pusa + Halichoerus (Carr and Perry, 1998; Mouchaty et al., 1995; Muizon, 1982 b; Perry et al., 1995; Rice, 1998). Burns and Fay (1970) and McDermid and Bonner (1975) argued that these differences should be recognized only at the subgeneric level.