Pinnipedia

Pinnipeds, commonly known as seals, are widely distributed and diverse carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammals, belonging to the clade Pinnipedia. They comprise the extant families Odobenidae, Otariidae, and Phocidae, with 34 extant species and more than 50 extinct species described from fossils. While seals were historically thought to have descended from two ancestral lines, molecular evidence supports them as a monophyletic group. Pinnipeds belong to the suborder Caniformia of the order Carnivora; their closest living relatives are musteloids, having diverged about 50 million years ago.

Pinnipedia

Uncredited · 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
pinnipedPBDB
Sits inside
PinnipedimorphaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pinnipedimorpha
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 1836 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 8 of 1836 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 551 of 1836 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 209 of 1836 occurrencesPleistocene — about 412 of 1836 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 4 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 7 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 10 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 10 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 29 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 51 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 88 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 105 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 56 occurrences9.8–8.4 Mya — about 59 occurrences8.4–7.0 Mya — about 59 occurrences7.0–5.6 Mya — about 60 occurrences5.6–4.2 Mya — about 99 occurrences4.2–2.8 Mya — about 105 occurrences2.8–1.4 Mya — about 101 occurrences1.4–0 Mya — about 982 occurrences37.71 Mya11.7 ka41.9 Mya0 Mya

1,836 occurrences of Pinnipedia 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

1,836 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

209 formations

Monterey — 33.77°N, 118.34°WMonterey — 33.60°N, 117.70°WMonterey — 34.60°N, 120.44°WMonterey — 33.60°N, 117.33°WMonterey — 33.78°N, 118.39°WMonterey — 33.64°N, 117.63°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WYorktown — 37.24°N, 76.51°WYorktown — 37.03°N, 76.63°WYorktown — 37.20°N, 76.90°WYorktown — 36.77°N, 76.37°WYorktown — 37.22°N, 76.96°WYorktown — 36.45°N, 77.09°WYorktown — 36.33°N, 77.58°WYorktown — 35.93°N, 77.57°WYorktown — 35.91°N, 77.32°WYorktown — 35.60°N, 77.37°WYorktown — 35.38°N, 77.99°WYorktown — 35.10°N, 77.03°WYorktown — 35.63°N, 77.34°WYorktown — 34.36°N, 77.87°WYorktown — 34.97°N, 76.81°WYorktown — 37.04°N, 76.36°WYorktown — 36.45°N, 77.08°WCalvert — 39.20°N, 75.60°WCalvert — 37.53°N, 77.42°WCalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WCalvert — 38.40°N, 76.50°WCalvert — 37.67°N, 77.16°WCalvert — 38.53°N, 76.52°WCalvert — 38.17°N, 76.87°WCalvert — 38.61°N, 76.52°WCalvert — 38.67°N, 76.53°WCalvert — 38.17°N, 76.85°WCalvert — 38.38°N, 76.99°WCalvert — 37.77°N, 77.28°WPisco — 15.58°S, 74.72°WPisco — 15.44°S, 74.87°WPisco — 15.55°S, 74.80°WPisco — 14.56°S, 75.67°WPisco — 15.50°S, 74.80°WPisco — 14.34°S, 75.91°WPisco — 14.45°S, 75.75°WPisco — 15.07°S, 75.01°WPisco — 15.06°S, 74.08°WPurisima — 36.95°N, 122.04°WPurisima — 37.47°N, 122.45°WPurisima — 36.97°N, 121.95°WPurisima — 38.06°N, 122.97°WPurisima — 37.53°N, 122.52°WPurisima — 37.29°N, 122.41°WPurisima — 36.95°N, 122.05°WSanta Margarita — 37.08°N, 122.07°WSanta Margarita — 37.05°N, 122.04°WSanta Margarita — 37.00°N, 122.00°WSanta Margarita — 35.13°N, 118.82°WSanta Margarita — 36.97°N, 122.06°WSanta Margarita — 36.80°N, 121.79°WSanta Margarita — 36.61°N, 121.74°WBahía Inglesa — 27.14°S, 70.88°WBahía Inglesa — 27.13°S, 70.83°WBahía Inglesa — 27.04°S, 70.79°WBahía Inglesa — 27.16°S, 70.89°WBahía Inglesa — 27.72°S, 70.99°WPalos Verdes Sand — 34.00°N, 118.20°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.83°N, 118.31°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.78°N, 118.19°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.75°N, 118.28°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EVarswater — 33.00°S, 18.00°EVarswater — 33.67°S, 18.43°EPeace River — 27.90°N, 81.80°WPeace River — 27.76°N, 81.83°WPeace River — 27.81°N, 81.91°WDiest — 51.21°N, 4.43°EDiest — 51.22°N, 4.46°ETemblor — 35.30°N, 118.50°WTemblor — 35.46°N, 118.92°WTemblor — 37.73°N, 122.13°WCapistrano — 33.56°N, 117.71°WCapistrano — 33.44°N, 117.62°WCapistrano — 33.50°N, 117.66°WCapistrano — 33.66°N, 117.67°WCapistrano — 33.63°N, 117.65°WAoki — 36.32°N, 137.95°EAoki — 36.32°N, 137.94°EKattendijk — 51.21°N, 4.43°ETamiami — 27.34°N, 82.51°WTamiami — 27.70°N, 82.50°WTamiami — 27.50°N, 82.50°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WTamiami — 27.08°N, 82.45°WTamiami — 26.98°N, 82.21°WTamiami — 26.95°N, 82.35°WBerchem — 51.21°N, 4.43°EBerchem — 51.17°N, 4.46°EBlack Rock Sandstone — 37.99°S, 145.04°EAstoria — 44.65°N, 124.06°WAstoria — 44.70°N, 124.06°WAstoria — 46.28°N, 123.78°WSan Mateo — 33.20°N, 117.37°WRed Crag — 51.96°N, 1.35°ERed Crag — 52.05°N, 1.25°ERed Crag — 52.09°N, 1.31°EStudienka — 48.20°N, 17.98°EStudienka — 48.20°N, 17.00°EPort Orford — 42.83°N, 124.55°WWilson Grove — 38.34°N, 122.84°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pinnipedia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 185 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 1,125 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

2,673 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1,256 sites for Pinnipedia, 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

550 references

Each of the 1,836 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. 538 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 Pinnipedia

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itPinnipedimorpha through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Illiger 1811)