Pinniped Pinniped Pinnipeds, commonly known as seals, are a widely distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic marine mammals. 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). There are 33 extant species of pinnipeds, and more than 50 extinct species have been described from fossils. While seals were historically thought to have descended from two ancestral lines, molecular evidence supports them as a monophyletic lineage (descended from one ancestral line). Pinnipeds belong to the order Carnivora and their
Patagonia (mammal) as opposed to earlier forest environments in the region. This coincides with "Patagonia"'s burrowing, grazing habits. A large variety of mammal species are known, including caviomorph rodents such as "Dudumus", as well as the rodent-like argyrolagoidean paucituberculates. "Patagonia" likely avoided competition in its fairly specialised niche. Patagonia (mammal) Patagonia is an extinct genus of non-placental mammal from the Miocene of Argentina. Traditionally considered a metatherian "incertae sedis", more recent analysis have shown it to be a gondwanathere. It is the youngest allothere species known. Currently, a single species is known, "P. peregrina", hailing from the Colhuehuapian-dating deposits of the Sarmiento