Arctocephalinae

Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds belonging to the genera Arctocephalus and Callorhinus. They were formerly considered members of subfamily Arctocephalinae in the family Otariidae, but the fur seals in Arctocephalus are more closely related to sea lions than they are to the Northern fur seal, so it was found to be a polyphyletic group. They are much more closely related to sea lions than true seals, and share with them external ears (pinnae), relatively long and muscular foreflippers, and the ability to walk on all fours. They are marked by their dense underfur, which made them a long-time object of commercial hunting. Eight species belong to the genus Arctocephalus and are found primarily in the Southern Hemisphere, while a ninth species also sometimes called fur seal, the Northern fur seal, belongs to a different genus and inhabits the North Pacific.

Arctocephalinae

Liam Quinn from Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
OtariidaePBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Otariidae
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Pinnipedia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pinnipedia

Time the record covers

At least 4.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 129 ka.

Miocene — about 1 of 2 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 2 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 2 occurrences7.5–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.2–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.4–5.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences775 ka–516 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences516 ka–258 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences258 ka–0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.333 Mya774 ka7.7 Mya0 Mya

2 occurrences of Arctocephalinae on record. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Capistrano — 33.56°N, 117.71°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°W

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The named rock units Arctocephalinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Found in the same rock

95 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Arctocephalinae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 2 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Arctocephalinae

Credit
Liam Quinn from Canada
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Arctocephalinae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itOtariidae through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Scheffer and Rice 1963)