The oldest definitive pinniped fossils date from approximately 30.6–23 million years ago
(Ma) in the North Pacific. Pinniped monophyly is consistently supported; the group shares a …

In the present study, a series of phylogenetic analyses of morphological, molecular, and
combined morphological-molecular datasets were conducted to investigate the relationships …

Body size and feeding morphology influence how animals partition themselves within
communities. We tested the relationships among sex, body size, skull morphology and …

Pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, walruses, and their fossil relatives) are one of the most
successful mammalian clades to live in the oceans. Despite a well-resolved molecular …

Background The Galapagos sea lion, Zalophus wollebaeki, is an endemic and endangered
otariid, which is considered as a sentinel species of ecosystem dynamics in the Galapagos …

The fossil record of pinnipeds (seals, fur seals and walruses) is globally distributed,
spanning from the late Oligocene to the Holocene. This record shows a complex …

The family Desmatophocidae represents an early radiation of extinct pinnipeds that peaked
in diversity during the middle Miocene. Although represented by abundant well-preserved …

The earliest phocid seals evolved 30–24 million years ago (Ma) in the western North
Atlantic. There remains uncertainty in evolutionary relationships, with molecular data …

Contrasting with their current ranges in the Antarctic and subantarctic zones, the fossil
record reveals that phocids (true and elephant seals) inhabited widespread subtropical …

The early pinnipedimorph Enaliarctos was a marine-adapted carnivore with dental and
locomotor features intermediate between terrestrial arctoids and living pinnipeds. New …