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
March Mammal Madness lecturer at Columbia University Joshua Drew, and assistant professor at Dominican University Christopher Anderson. Along with these educators, the artist Charon Henning provides artwork of the various mammal competitors throughout the whole tournament. Together, they heavily research all of the combatants, using what they learn to provide an entertaining and informative experience. In 2017, more educators were added on to the March Mammal Madness team to help with the competition. This includes Ph.D. student at the University of Notre Dame Mauna Dasari, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Notre Dame Marc Kissel, post-doctoral researcher and instructor at the University of