Otariidae

An eared seal, otariid, or otary, is any member of the marine mammal family Otariidae, one of three groupings of pinnipeds. They comprise 15 extant species in seven genera and are commonly known either as sea lions or fur seals, distinct from true seals (phocids) and the walrus (odobenids). Otariids are adapted to a semiaquatic lifestyle, feeding and migrating in the water, but breeding and resting on land or ice. They reside in subpolar, temperate, and equatorial waters throughout the Pacific and Southern Oceans, the southern Indian, and Atlantic Oceans. They are conspicuously absent in the north Atlantic.

Otariidae

User Bmh ca on en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
eared sealPBDB
Sits inside
OtarioideaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Pinnipedia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pinnipedia

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 329 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 48 of 329 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 35 of 329 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 104 of 329 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 4 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 4 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 6 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 7 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 9 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 10 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 14 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 19 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 19 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 210 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

329 occurrences of Otariidae on record. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

329 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

62 formations

Purisima — 36.95°N, 122.03°WPurisima — 37.47°N, 122.45°WPurisima — 36.97°N, 121.95°WPurisima — 37.29°N, 122.41°WPurisima — 36.95°N, 122.05°WMonterey — 33.60°N, 117.70°WMonterey — 34.61°N, 120.44°WPalos Verdes Sand — 34.00°N, 118.20°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.76°N, 118.31°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.78°N, 118.19°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.75°N, 118.28°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WPisco — 15.56°S, 74.69°WPisco — 15.07°S, 75.01°WSanta Margarita — 37.05°N, 122.04°WSanta Margarita — 37.01°N, 122.01°WSanta Margarita — 36.61°N, 121.74°WPort Orford — 42.83°N, 124.55°WSan Mateo — 33.20°N, 117.37°WCapistrano — 33.56°N, 117.71°WCapistrano — 33.50°N, 117.66°WCapistrano — 33.43°N, 117.61°WIimuro — 35.52°N, 139.72°EIimuro — 35.62°N, 139.57°EChui — 31.11°S, 50.98°WRio Dell — 40.51°N, 124.10°WSan Pedro — 33.79°N, 118.29°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WTomioka — 37.21°N, 140.99°ETomioka — 37.35°N, 141.01°ECaracoles — 15.07°S, 75.01°WCaracoles — 15.51°S, 74.75°WSisquoc — 34.62°N, 120.45°WHirayama — 35.65°N, 139.38°E"Topanga" — 33.66°N, 117.63°WMandano — 35.34°N, 140.15°EVarswater — 33.67°S, 18.43°ERound Mountain — 35.39°N, 118.99°WAlmejas — 28.11°N, 115.18°WKarakane — 34.87°N, 132.05°EPismo — 35.17°N, 120.73°WSouth Bight II — 51.54°N, 178.98°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Otariidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 38 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 197 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

1,071 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 289 sites for Otariidae, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

144 references

Each of the 329 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 132 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Otariidae

Credit
User Bmh ca on en.wikipedia
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itOtarioidea through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1825)