Phocea (fose)

[NL., prop. Phocæa, a colony of Athens, and the parent city of Ma ilia, now Marseilles.] The 25th planetoid, discovered by Chacornac at Marseilles in 1853. Phocian (fō'sian), a. and n. [L. Phocis, Gr. uri, Phocis (see def.), + -an.] I. a. Of or pertaining to Phocis, a state of ancient Greece, or its inhabitants. II. n. A native or an inhabitant of Phocis. Phocidæ (fõ'si-dē), n. pl. [NL., Phoca + -idæ .] A family of aquatic carnivorous mammals of the order Feræ and suborder Pinnipe dia , having the limbs modified into fins or flippers; the seals. The family was formerly coextensive with the suborder, including the otaries and the walruses as well as the true seals, and divided into three subfamilies: Arc to cephalin a , the otaries; Tri che china , the walruses; and Phocina , the seals proper. The last alone now constitute the family Phocidæ , having the body truly phociform, with the hinder limbs projecting backward, and not capable of being turned forward; the outer ear obsolete; the fore flippers smaller than the hind ones, and having the digits succe ively shortened and armed with claws, while the hind flippers are emarginated by the shortening of the third and fourth digits, and are usually but not always provided with claws. The incisors are variable in number, and the upper ones are unnotched. The skull has no ali sphenoid canals, and the postorbital proce es are obsolete. In this restricted sense the Pho cidæ are represented by about 12 genera, and divided into the subfamilies Phocinæ, Cystophorinæ, and Stenorhynchinæ. See cuts under harp - seal, Pagomys, Phoca, sealı, and Erignathus.