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Post by brobear on Mar 27, 2022 4:14:22 GMT -5
Top 10 Largest Living Carnivorans: 1- Southern elephant seal. 2- Northern elephant seal. 3- Walrus. 4- Steller sea lion. 5- Polar bear. 6- Brown bear. 7- Leopard seal 8- Tiger. 9- Lion. 10- American black bear / Asiatic black bear.
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Post by brobear on Mar 27, 2022 5:05:17 GMT -5
Sea lions, weasels and bears oh my! oceanwildthings.com/2010/05/sea-lions-weasels-and-bears-oh-my/ Classifying animals is a messy business. Back in the day before genetic analysis, seals, sea lions and walruses were classified as members of the order Pinnipedia. They were considered to be “separate from but closely related to the terrestrial carnivores of the order Carnivora” as told by the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. And of course the whole ear thing played a role. Pinnipeds with ear flaps, sea lions and fur seals, were considered to share a common ancestor with bears, while true seals without ear flaps were considered to be more closely related to weasels. Then came along the ability to inspect animals at the microscopic level, which should have cleared everything up, but alas instead it just made things more confusing. Now the only things scientists agree on is that all pinnipeds descended from the same ancestor and should be classifed within the order Carnivora and the suborder Caniformia. But where they belong within the suborder Caniformia is an entirely different question. One group of scientists favor a sister group to the bears while other study results support a closer relation to the weasels. Dale Rice, author of the article on classification for the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, agrees with a paper from 1997 by McKenna and Bell. They classify “pinnipeds as the superfamily Phocoidea and the bear-like terrestrial carnivores as the superfamily Ursoidea, both under the parvorder Ursida.” So it seems that pinnipeds and bears ended up in sister superfamilies. Weasels are categorized in their own parvorder Mustelida. And just to help clarify, according to allwords.com a parvorder is “a specific taxonomic category above superfamily and below infraorder.” The bottom-line, as of the writing of this post, is that seals, sea lions and walruses are more closely related to bears than weasels. Hopefully that cleared things up, just a little.
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Post by brobear on Mar 28, 2022 4:07:58 GMT -5
The leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx) www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/marine-mammals/seals/leopard-seal/ The leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx) is easily identified by its long slim body and comparatively large fore-flippers. The leopard seal’s disproportionately large head, massive jaws, impressive teeth and tremendous gape give it a snake-like appearance. In colour, the leopard seal shades from almost black to almost blue on the flanks. The muzzle, throat and belly are light grey scattered with dark grey and black spots. The demarcation between dorsal and ventral colouration is distinct but diffuse. Pup appearance is very similar to that of the adults. Their underwater vocalisations are of low to medium frequency and long duration. The leopard seal’s lowest frequency call is particularly powerful and can be heard at the surface and felt through the ice. Newborn pups are more than 1 m long and may weigh close to 30kg. Females grow faster than males and very large individuals can weigh up to 450 kg. Adult females: length 3.6 m, weight up to 500 kg ( 1100 pounds ) Adult males: length 3 m, weight up to 300 kg ( 660 pounds ) *A leopard seal can swim 40 mph. She has massive, powerful jaws filled with sharp teeth in a skull larger than the skull of a horse.
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Post by brobear on Apr 5, 2022 6:47:00 GMT -5
Classification en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pinnipeds The infraorder Pinnipedia consists of 3 families containing 34 extant species belonging to 22 genera and divided into 48 extant subspecies, as well the extinct Caribbean monk seal and Japanese sea lion species, which are the only pinniped species to go extinct since prehistoric times. This does not include hybrid species or extinct prehistoric species. Superfamily Otarioidea Family Odobenidae Genus Odobenus: 1 species Family Otariidae Genus Arctocephalus: 8 species Genus Callorhinus: 1 species Genus Eumetopias: 1 species Genus Neophoca: 1 species Genus Otaria: 1 species Genus Phocarctos: 1 species Genus Zalophus: 3 species Superfamily Phocoidea Family Phocidae Genus Cystophora: 1 species Genus Erignathus: 1 species Genus Halichoerus: 1 species Genus Histriophoca: 1 species Genus Hydrurga: 1 species Genus Leptonychotes: 1 species Genus Lobodon: 1 species Genus Mirounga: 2 species Genus Monachus: 1 species Genus Neomonachus: 2 species Genus Ommatophoca: 1 species Genus Pagophilus: 1 species Genus Phoca: 2 species Genus Pusa: 3 species
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Post by brobear on Apr 18, 2022 7:19:31 GMT -5
Most posters, when debating a large pinniped, such as the Staller sea lion, will focus on the marine mammals weight. Consider that on dry land, all this big sea lion has is weight and jaws - period. Of course, as defense, they will jump onto the fact that the sea lion has a thick layer of blubber which acts as a shield. I find it ironic that the same posters who ( defensively in their debates ) regard any fat on a bear as a weakness, will argue it's value upon the sea lion. Bottom line, on dry land against a large brown bear or a polar bear, the Steller sea lion, or any other large pinniped, has extremely poor maneuverability. Although I have no data on the pinniped's stamina, I would wager that on dry land a Steeler sea lion will tire quickly. He will flop around and twist and turn as best he can with his great bulk until he is totally exhausted. The bear, on the other hand, can charge in and out, continue to circle around, and use his jaws and claws effectively while easily dodging the jaws of the pinniped. In the end, the biggest of the sea lions stands little chance of killing the bear. The same scenario would likely hold true with a walrus. As for the gigantic elephant seal, it would simply not be in the bear's nature to attack such a mountain of flesh.
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