Pinnipedia

Searched as Pinnipedia indet.. The Paleobiology Database treats Pinnipedia as the accepted name.

Pinnipeds, commonly known as seals, are a widely distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammals. 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

From a variety of images credited above. · CC0 · 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 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 33 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 20 of 33 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 6 of 33 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 5 of 33 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 0.5 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–10 Mya — about 1 occurrence10–9.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.3–8.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.4–7.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.4–6.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.5–5.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.6–4.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.6–3.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.7–2.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence928 ka–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

33 occurrences of Pinnipedia on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

33 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

25 formations

Vaqueros — 33.64°N, 117.77°WVaqueros — 34.33°N, 118.83°WVarswater — 32.96°S, 18.11°EBlack Rock Sandstone — 37.99°S, 145.04°EKaraginskaya — 43.82°N, 51.43°EJewett — 35.49°N, 118.85°WFushina — 35.24°N, 133.24°EFujina — 35.43°N, 133.00°EKarakane — 34.97°N, 132.15°ETsurushi — 38.01°N, 138.27°EDiest — 51.21°N, 4.43°EAoki — 36.35°N, 137.97°EDeguynos — 33.03°N, 116.05°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.78°N, 118.19°WHirayama — 35.65°N, 139.38°ETaime — 4.32°S, 81.25°WBerchem — 51.20°N, 4.43°ESan Diego — 32.75°N, 117.17°WChilcatay — 14.62°S, 75.63°WSanta Margarita — 37.05°N, 122.04°WDeist — 51.19°N, 4.46°EPongo — 15.50°S, 74.40°WTonokita — 43.17°N, 144.00°EBahía Inglesa — 27.72°S, 70.99°WHorcón — 32.70°S, 71.46°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pinnipedia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. One further formation holds fewer occurrences and is not listed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pinnipedia and its relatives

Miocene

Where Pinnipedia and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

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

28 references

Each of the 33 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. 16 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
From a variety of images credited above.
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

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 itPinnipedimorpha through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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