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
The Mammal Society Handbook is well established as the classic reference source detailing the biology, ecology and conservation of every mammal occurring in Britain and Ireland. The 3rd edition, dating to 1991, had long been out of press, until over 100 of the leading mammalogists, mostly members of The Mammal Society, contributed to complete this comprehensive 800-page 4th revision, published in 2008. It presents an authoritative summary of our current knowledge of mammal ecology, biology and conservation issues, with detailed accounts for every species of mammal found in or around the British Isles. http://mammal.org.uk/handbook The Mammal Society The Mammal Society is a British