Abstract
The mutual affinities of pinnipeds (the 'fin-footed' members of the placental mammal order Carnivore) have been the subject of controversy for more than a century1,2. Disagreement centres over whether the origin of the group from a terrestrial ancestry involved a single or multiple marine invasion(s). Particularly since influential papers of the late 1950s and '60s (refs 3, 4), the dual origin of pinnipeds—sea lions (otariids) plus walruses (odobenids) from bear-like forms, and 'true' seals (phocids) from weasel- or otter-like forms—has become the overwhelmingly dominant view in the morphological systematic literature5–8, a point reflected by its acceptance in several general texts9–11. Anatomical evidence from a survey of appendicular osteology presented here contradicts this notion and suggests radical alteration of currently accepted hypotheses of the relationship of the major pinniped lineages. This evidence strongly suggests a single (monophyletic) origin for the group, a finding in agreement with certain biomolecular results12–15.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Mivart, G. Proc. zool. Soc. Land. XX, 484–500 (1885).
Kellogg, R. Bull. Dept. Geol. Univ. Calif. 13, 23–132 (1922).
Savage, R. J. G. Proc. zool. Soc. Lond. 129, 151–244 (1957).
McLaren, I. A. Syst. Zool. 9, 18–28 (1960).
Tedford, R. H. Syst. Zool. 25, 363–374 (1976).
Muizon, C. de, Geobios Mém. Spéc. 6, 259–277 (1982).
Muizon, C. de, Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 89, 175–213 (1982).
Barnes, L. G., Domning, D. P. & Ray, C. E. Mar. Mamm. Sci. 1, 15–53 (1985).
King, J. E. Seals of the World Second edition (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1983).
The encyclopedia of mammals (ed. MacDonald, D.) (Facts on File, New York, 1984).
Savage, R. J. G. & Long, M. R. Mammal evolution: an illustrated guide (British Museum, London, 1986).
Fay, F. H., Rausch, V. R. & Felitz, E. T. Can. J. Zool. 45, 773–778 (1967).
Sarich, V. M. Syst. Zool. 28, 286–295 (1969).
Jong, W. W. de, in Macromolecular Sequences in Systematics and Evolutionary Biology (ed. Goodman, M.) 75–114 (Plenum, New York, 1982).
Árnason, Ú. & Widegren, B. Molec. Biol. Evo. 3, 356–365 (1986).
Mitchell, E. Univ. Calif. Publ. geol. Sci. 61, 1–105 (1966).
Repenning, C. A. & Tedford, R. H. U.S. Geol. Sur. Prof. Paper 992, 1–93 (1977).
Wyss, A. R. Am. Mus. nat. Hist. Novitates (in the press).
Gordon, K. R. J. Zool. 195, 349–367 (1981).
English, A. W. J. Zool. 178, 341–364 (1976).
Repenning, C. A. in Functional Anatomy of Marine Mammals Vol. 1 (ed. Harrison, R. J.) 307–331 (Academic, New York, 1972).
Wyss, A. R. Am. Mus. nat. Hist. Novitates 2871, 1–31 (1987).
Wiig, O. Zool. Scripta 12, 225–227 (1983).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wyss, A. Evidence from flipper structure for a single origin of pinnipeds. Nature 334, 427–428 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/334427a0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/334427a0
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Impact of the terrestrial-aquatic transition on disparity and rates of evolution in the carnivoran skull
BMC Evolutionary Biology (2015)
-
Swimming Mode Inferred from Skeletal Proportions in the Fossil Pinnipeds Enaliarctos and Allodesmus (Mammalia, Carnivora)
Journal of Mammalian Evolution (2009)
-
How seals divide up the world: environment, life history, and conservation
Oecologia (2006)
-
Amino acid sequences of hemoglobin β chains of five species of pinnipeds:Neophoca cinerea, Otaria byronia, Eumetopias jubatus, Pusa hispida, andPagophilus groenlandica
Journal of Protein Chemistry (1996)
-
Phylogenetic relationships within caniform carnivores based on analyses of the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene
Journal of Molecular Evolution (1996)