The type species of Noriphoca, N. gaudini, was originally named Phoca gaudini on the basis of a skull from late Oligocene to earliest Miocene deposits in Chiento, Italy.^[1] Later authors referred it to either Monotherium, Pristiphoca, or the physeteroid genus Paleophoca.^{[citation needed]} However, it was later shown that P. gaudini cannot be referred to Monotherium as the latter was probably phocine and not monachine, and erected Noriphoca for the stem-monachine species P. gaudini.^[2]