Pinnipedimorpha Explained

Pinnipedimorpha is a clade of arctoid carnivorans that is defined to include the last common ancestor of Phoca and Enaliarctos, and all descendants of that ancestor.^[1] Scientists still debate on which lineage of arctoid carnivorans are the closest relatives to the pinnipedimorphs, being more closely related to musteloids.^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]}

Below is an overall phylogeny of the taxa covered in the article followed after a composite tree in Berta et al. (2018)^[1] and a total-evidence (combined molecular-morphological) dataset in Paterson et al. (2020):^[7]

See also

• List of fossil pinnipeds

Further reading

• A. Berta, C. E. Ray, and A. R. Wyss. 1989. Skeleton of the oldest known pinniped, Enaliarctos mealsi. Science 244:60-62

Notes and References

1. Berta, A. . Churchill, M. . Boessenecker, R.W. . amp . 2018 . The Origin and Evolutionary Biology of Pinnipeds: Seals, Sea Lions, and Walruses . Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences . 46 . 203–228 . 10.1146/annurev-earth-082517-010009. 2018AREPS..46..203B . free .
2. Lento, G. M. . Hickson, R. E. . Chambers, G. K. . Penny, D. . 1995 . Use of spectral analysis to test hypotheses on the origin of pinnipeds . Molecular Biology and Evolution . 12 . 1 . 28–52 . 7877495 . 10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a040189. free .
3. Hunt, R. M. Jr. . Barnes, L. G. . 1994. Basicranial evidence for ursid affinity of the oldest pinnipeds. Proceedings of the San Diego Society of Natural History. 29. 57–67. PDF.
4. Higdon, J. W. . Bininda-Emonds, O. R. . Beck, R. M. . Ferguson, S. H. . Phylogeny and divergence of the pinnipeds (Carnivora: Mammalia) assessed using a multigene dataset . 10.1186/1471-2148-7-216 . BMC Evolutionary Biology . 7 . 216 . 2007 . 17996107 . 2245807 . free .
5. Sato, J. J. . Wolsan, M. . Suzuki, H. . Hosoda, T. . Yamaguchi, Y. . Hiyama, K. . Kobayashi, M. . Minami, S. . 10.2108/zsj.23.125 . Evidence from nuclear DNA sequences sheds light on the phylogenetic relationships of Pinnipedia: Single origin with affinity to Musteloidea . Zoological Science . 23 . 2 . 125–46 . 2006 . 16603806. 2115/13508 . 25795496 . free .
6. Flynn, J. J. . Finarelli, J. A. . Zehr, S. . Hsu, J. . Nedbal, M. A. . Molecular phylogeny of the Carnivora (Mammalia): Assessing the impact of increased sampling on resolving enigmatic relationships . 10.1080/10635150590923326 . Systematic Biology . 54 . 2 . 317–37 . 2005 . 16012099. free .
7. Paterson . R. S. . Rybczynski . N.. Kohno . N.. Maddin . H. C. . 2020 . Pinniped taxonomy: review of currently recognized species and subspecies, and evidence used for their description. . Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution . 7 . 457 . 10.3389/fevo.2019.00457. free .