"Seal With "Arms" Discovered -- Evolution at Work." National Geographic.

National Geographic Society. Web. 20 May 2014.

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Seal With "Arms" Discovered -- Evolution at Work

A newly discovered prehistoric seal with "arms" is the no-longer missing
link between seals' land-based ancestors and the ocean-dwelling,
ippered creatures we know, a new study says.

Perhaps spurred by amplied global warming and cooling in the ancient
Arctic, the freshwater, amphibious seal is an example of the region as a
hotbed of evolution, researchers say.

Measuring about three and a half feet (110 centimeters) long, the 20- to
24-million-year-old "walking seal" had heavy, muscular limbs like those of
a land mammal, a long tail, and webbed feet.

Unlike the shu"ing seals of today, the newfound species may have
walked as gracefully as it swam, researchers say.

If the nless seal looks slightly less than odd, it may be because of its
resemblance to a modern otter, which lead study author Natalia
Rybczynski agreed "to some extent, ecologically" could be "a modern
analogy for these early pinnipeds."

Pinnipedsliterally "n feet"include walruses, seals, and sea lions.

Seal-ing the Evolutionary Gap

Many marine mammals, such as whales and manatees, are believed to
have roots on landan idea that originated with Charles Darwin 150
years ago.

But hard evidence for land-to-water evolution in seals and other
pinnipeds was lacking until the new discoveryaptly named Puijila
darwini ("Darwin's young marine mammal" in an amalgamation of an Inuit
language and Latin).

"We know that some sort of land-dwelling ancestor existed, but how did
we get to the fully marine form?" asked Rybczynski, a vertebrate
paleontologist with the Canadian Museum of Nature.

"There was a morphological gap. So Puijila darwini is an important
transition fossil," Rybczynski added.

Evolution on Fast Forward

The most primitive pinniped fossil skeleton yet found, the P. darwini
specimen was discovered in 2007 in an impact crater in the Canadian
Arctic.

The inland location on Devon Island, Nunavut, suggests that pinniped
evolution featured a freshwater phase, according to the study.

During that period the animals frequented the then temperate Arctic's
lakes and rivers. The species may have gradually adapted to an ocean
lifestyle after lakes had begun to freeze over in winter, depriving the seals
of food.

This rst evidence of early Arctic pinnipeds suggests that the region may
have been a hotbed of pinniped evolution, Rybczynski said. The Arctic
experiences amplied climate shifts, which could speed evolution as
animals are forced to adaptor disappear.