Pinniped High levels of organic chemicals accumulate in these animals since they are near the top of food chains and have large reserves of blubber. Lactating mothers can pass the toxins on to their young. These pollutants can cause gastrointestinal cancers, decreased reproductivity and greater vulnerability to infectious diseases. Other man-made threats include habitat destruction by oil and gas exploitation, encroachment by boats, and underwater noise. 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
Saint Bathans mammal Saint Bathans mammal The Saint Bathans mammal is a currently unnamed extinct mammal from the Miocene of New Zealand. A member of the Saint Bathans Fauna, it is notable for being a late surviving "archaic" mammal species, neither a placental or marsupial, as well as for providing evidence that terrestrial mammals did in fact once live in Zealandia, in contrast with modern New Zealand, where bats are the only mammals in otherwise bird-dominated terrestrial faunas. The Saint Bathans mammal is currently represented by two specimens, MNZ S.40958 and MNZ S.42214, composed of a lower jaw fragment and a femur respectively.