What are pinnipeds and sirenians? What does term pinnipeds stands for? How do seals and sealions differ from whales and dolphins?

          The name given to the group of mammals that includes seals and sealions is pinnipeds, which means “wing-footed”. It is a good description for these animals, clumsy on land but agile and graceful in the water.

          Seals and sealions spend most of their time in the ocean waters, but, unlike whales and dolphins, they also come out on to land to breed and suckle their young. Their four limbs have developed into flippers that propel them through the water at speed.

          Walruses also belong to the pinnipeds group. They are large, slow-swimming Arctic mammals with huge tusks.

          Seals and sealions can be divided into the eared seals, which include all sealions and the fur seals, and the true seals (all other seals). The eared seals are so called because they have small ear flaps.

          True seals have short front flippers but powerful hind flippers, which they use to propel themselves through the water. When on land they shuffle along on their bellies. Eared seals have long, strong front flippers that support their bodies when on land. In the water, they use these flippers like oars to pull themselves along.

          Seals and sealions feed on fish, squid, krill and other small sea creatures. Some also eat birds and even the young of other seals.

 

 

 

          Like cetaceans, sirenians—manatees and their relatives, the dugongs—are mammals that live in water all the time. They have large, bulky bodies and live in tropical coastal waters and rivers. Manatees and dugongs feed only on water plants.

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