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 The Mammal Society The Mammal Society is a British charity devoted to the research and conservation of British mammals. The Mammal Society was formed in 1954, and the first ever spring conference took place the following year at The University of Exeter. The Mammal Society has a membership of around 2000 mammalogists, ecologists, conservationists, both experts and enthusiasts, all working to develop greater understanding of mammals and the conservation challenges they face. The Society runs national surveys for mammals, for example Mini Mammal Monitoring. You can find more information at mammal.org.uk/surveys_and_monitoring. The Mammal Society is also working to address the