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
Waitoreke mammal species, the Saint Bathans Mammal, existed in New Zealand before human settlement. Waitoreke In New Zealand folklore, the waitoreke (or waitoreki, waitorete) is an otter/beaver-like creature. It is usually described as a small otter-like animal that lives in the South Island of New Zealand. There are many theories on the waitoreke's true identity, such as it being an otter, beaver or pinniped. The origin of the name "waitoreke" is not well documented; it may have been an invention. It does not occur in Tregear's fairly comprehensive Māori dictionary of 1891, and was said to be "ungrammatical" by leading Māori