Pinniped

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Pinnipeds (pronounced ), 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 (whose only living member is the walrus), Otariidae (the eared seals: sea lions and fur seals), and Phocidae (the earless seals, or true seals), 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 (descended from one ancestor). Pinnipeds belong to the suborder Caniformia of the order Carnivora; their closest living relatives are musteloids (weasels, raccoons, skunks and red pandas), having diverged about 50 million years ago. Seals range in size from the 1 m (3 ft 3 in) and 45 kg (100 lb) Baikal seal to the 5 m (16 ft) and 3,200 kg (7,100 lb) southern elephant seal. Several species exhibit sexual dimorphism...

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