Knowra Phocidae Phocidae Phocidae is the family of true seals, aquatic carnivorous mammals distinguished from eared seals by lacking external ear flaps and by their hind flippers.
Pinnipedia : Pinnipedia is the mammalian clade comprising seals, sea lions, and walruses. Phocidae is one of the three living pinniped families.
Aquatic locomotion in pinnipeds : Aquatic locomotion in pinnipeds is swimming driven by their foreflippers or hind flippers, depending on the group. Phocids swim chiefly by moving their hindquarters and hind flippers from side to side.
Harbor seal : The harbor seal is a widespread coastal true seal found across temperate and subarctic waters of the Northern Hemisphere. It exemplifies a phocid that regularly hauls out on sheltered coasts.
Pinniped evolution : Pinniped evolution is the evolutionary history of seals, sea lions, and walruses from terrestrial carnivoran ancestors. Phocid origins are part of the broader transition of pinnipeds to aquatic life.
Seal hunting : Seal hunting is the killing of seals for products such as meat, oil, and fur. Commercial hunting heavily reduced some phocid populations, including harp seals.
Otariidae : Otariidae is the family of eared seals, including sea lions and fur seals. Its members have external ear flaps and rotate their hind flippers forward on land.
Pinniped diving physiology : Pinniped diving physiology comprises adaptations that allow seals, sea lions, and walruses to remain underwater. Oxygen storage and controlled circulation support the long dives of many phocids.
Weddell seal : The Weddell seal is an Antarctic true seal known for diving beneath sea ice. Its long dives and use of breathing holes illustrate extreme polar adaptations.
Puijila : Puijila is an extinct, semiaquatic carnivoran from the Miocene of the Canadian Arctic. Its fossils illuminate early stages in the evolution of pinnipeds.
Marine mammal bycatch : Marine mammal bycatch is the unintended capture or entanglement of marine mammals in fishing gear. Fishing nets and lines can injure or kill phocids alongside target catch.
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