Otarioidea

Otarioidea is a superfamily of pinnipeds that includes the families Odobenidae (walruses), Otariidae, and their stem-relatives. In the past when the pinnipeds were considered to be a polyphyletic group of marine mammals, a few points of cranial and dental morphology suggested that the otarioids originated from a line of bears. One extinct family, Enaliarctidae, was postulated to be otarioids that were a transitional clade between Hemicyoninae and Otariidae. Recent comprehensive studies have, however, since the 1990s found pinnipeds to be a monophyletic clade of aquatic arctoids. There are a few authorities that place desmatophocids and odobenids as sister taxa to Phocidae in the clade Phocomorpha based on a few minor physiological features.

Otarioidea

Togiak National Wildlife Refuge · Public Domain · 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
Sits inside
PinnipediaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pinnipedimorpha
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 336 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 54 of 336 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 36 of 336 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 104 of 336 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 0.6 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–15 Mya — about 4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 4 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 5 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 5 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 7 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 7 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 10 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 10 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 15 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

336 occurrences of Otarioidea 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

336 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

67 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°WCapistrano — 33.56°N, 117.71°WCapistrano — 33.50°N, 117.66°WCapistrano — 33.43°N, 117.61°WPort Orford — 42.83°N, 124.55°WSan Mateo — 33.20°N, 117.37°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°WShiotsubo — 37.73°N, 140.46°EShiotsubo — 37.60°N, 139.74°EHirayama — 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°W

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The named rock units Otarioidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 43 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

1,065 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 294 sites for Otarioidea, 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

147 references

Each of the 336 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. 135 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 content1

Picture of Otarioidea

Credit
Togiak National Wildlife Refuge
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Otarioidea was found in Sketchfab.

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 itPinnipedia through timeThe world it lived on

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