What animals are in the pinniped group?

Seals, Sea Lions and Walruses

The word “pinniped” means fin- or flipper-footed and refers to the marine mammals that have front and rear flippers. This group includes seals, sea lions and walruses — animals that live in the ocean but are able to come on land for long periods of time.

How many pinniped species are there?

33 speciesThe pinnipeds are a group of 33 species of aquatic fin-footed mammals composing three families: the true seals (family Phocidae), the fur seals and sea lions (family Otariidae), and the walrus (family Odobenidae).

What does a pinniped mean?

Definition of pinniped

: any of an order or suborder (Pinnipedia) of aquatic carnivorous mammals (such as a seal or walrus) with all four limbs modified into flippers.

What animals are in the order Pinnipedia?

Pinnipedia is an infraorder of mammals in the order Carnivora, composed of seals, sea lions, and the walrus. A member of this group is called a pinniped or a seal. They are widespread throughout the ocean and some larger lakes, primarily in colder waters.

Is a penguin a pinniped?

Although pinnipeds are widespread, most species prefer the colder waters of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. … They feed largely on fish and marine invertebrates; a few, such as the leopard seal, feed on large vertebrates, such as penguins and other seals.

Is a dolphin a pinniped?

Marine mammals are classified into four different taxonomic groups: cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses), sirenians (manatees and dugongs), and marine fissipeds (polar bears and sea otters).

Is a manatee a pinniped?

The distinctive characteristics of pinnipeds have many wondering: Are manatees pinnipeds? Actually, they’re not. … Sea otters also look and behave like pinnipeds, plus they’re the largest member of the weasel family. They could be distant relatives, but they don’t belong to the same specific group of marine mammals.

Is an otter a pinniped?

Two Alaska marine mammals are neither pinniped nor cetacean: the polar bear and sea otter. They are both fissipeds, “split-footed” members of the order Carnivora, and are more closely related to terrestrial carnivores, like weasels, than seals or whales.

Is an octopus a pinniped?

Most, however, rely primarily on fish, crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, shrimp), cephalopods (squid and octopus), and mollusks (shellfish). Northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) with pups. … In other pinnipeds the sexes are similar in size.

Is a walrus a pinniped?

Walrus are the largest pinniped. Seals, sea lions, and walruses belong to a group of marine mammals called pinnipeds, referring to their flippered feet. Seals (true seals or earless seals) have no external ear flaps.

What is the largest pinniped?

the elephant seal
Did you know that the largest pinniped is the elephant seal? While walrus adult males can grow to be more than 2 tons (as much as a car), male elephant seals can weigh over 3 tons (even larger than a polar bear!).

Which is not a pinniped?

Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. They are an informal grouping within the infraorder Cetacea, usually excluding dolphins and porpoises.

What is the smallest pinniped?

The smallest pinniped, Pusa sibirica (the Baikal seal), which weighs about 45 kilograms (kg) when full grown, grows to about 1 meter (m) long; the largest, Mirounga leonina (the male Southern elephant seal), grows to about 5 m long and weighs up to 3200 kg.

Are elephant seals sea lions?

Pinnipeds are carnivorous marine mammals with fin-like limbs. They breathe air like humans and other mammals, reptiles and birds, but they spend most of their time at sea. Pinnipeds include “true seals”, sea lions, fur seals and walruses.

What kind of animal is a sea lion?

marine mammals
Seals and sea lions are marine mammals called ‘pinnipeds’ that differ in physical characteristics and adaptations. Sea lions (left) are brown, bark loudly, “walk” on land using their large flippers and have visible ear flaps. Seals have small flippers, wriggle on their bellies on land, and lack visible ear flaps.

Why is a fur seal not a sea lion?

The features to distinguish them from each other are that Fur seals have a much thicker fur then Sea lions. Sea lions are larger in size then Fur seals, while the sexual dimorphism (size difference between male and females) is larger in Fur seals then Sea lions.

What did pinnipeds evolved from?

Pinnipeds evolved from the ancestors of the musteloids which include everything from the red panda to skunks, badgers weasels, and raccoons. One potential ancestor was Puijila, an otter-like creature with a long tail and webbed feet that likely lived by freshwater lakes about 24 million years ago.

Do Baikal seals have predators?

The only known natural predator of adult Baikal seals is the brown bear, but this is not believed to occur frequently. The seal pups are typically hidden in a den, but can fall prey to smaller land predators such as the red fox, the sable and the white-tailed eagle.