{"references": ["King, J. E. 1956. The monk seals genus Monachus. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Zoology Series, 3 (5): 203 - 256.", "Boddaert, P. 1785. Elenchus animalium, volumen 1: Sistens quadrupedia huc usque nota, erorumque varietates. C. R. Hake, Rotterdam, 174 pp.", "Gray, J. E. 1854. The ounces. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, ser. 2, 14: 394.", "Shaw, G. 1800. General zoology or systematic natural history. G. Kearsley, London, 12: 1 - 330.", "Desmarest, A. G. 1820, 1822. Mammalogie ou description des espece de mammiferes. Encyclopedie Methodique. Agasse, Paris, 555 pp., 66 plates."]}

Monachus monachus (Hermann, 1779). Beschaft. Berlin Ges. Naturforsch. Fr., 4:501. TYPE LOCALITY: King (1956) listed the locality as "captured in the autumn of 1777 in the Dalmation Sea at Ossero." [Yugoslavia]. DISTRIBUTION: Mediterranean and Black Seas; NW Africa to Cape Blanc. STATUS: CITES - Appendix I; U.S. ESA and IUCN - Endangered. SYNONYMS: albiventer Boddaert, 1785; altantica Gray, 1854; bicolor Shaw, 1800; byronii Desmarest, 1820; hermannii Lesson, 1828; leucogaster Peron, 1817; mediterraneus Nilsson, 1838.

Published as part of W. Christopher Wozencraft, 1993, Order Carnivora, pp. 279-348 in Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London :Smithsonian Institution Press on page 331, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7359191