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 by a mix of scientific research, and an element of chance. Katie Hinde and the March Mammal Madness organizing team do in-depth research on the mammal contestants. Temperament, diet, social behavior, environment, size, and fight style are just a few of the factors that are taken into consideration. After these factors are weighed against each other, Hinde and the rest determine probability of one animal defeating another. This is how they develop the seed, or rank, of each mammal. Then a 100 sided die is rolled with a determined percentage numbers attributed to each animal. This adds an element of