The Weddell seals and their physiological adaptation to deep diving

• Main Author: Lo, Simon
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: University of Canterbury 2005
• Subjects: Arctic; Antarctic; Weddell; Antarc*; Weddell Seals; walrus*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10092/13980

Seals, sea lions and walruses; all belong to a group of marine mammals called pinnipeds, which means "fin-footed". Marine mammals are just like the mammals that live on land environment; they are warm-blooded, breathe air to stay alive and give birth to live young that fed with milk. Seals are categorized into three families: Phocidae, true seals; Otariidae, eared seals and Odobenidae, walruses. The walrus has just one species. They are big seals with long teeth called tusks that they use to make breathing holes in ice and to help them climb out onto the ice. They can only be found in the arctic region and not in Antarctic. The eared seals include five species of sea lion and nine species of Fur seal. The most distinctive feature of this animal is their small furry earflaps or lobes to their ears. They can also turn their back flippers forward under their bodies and walk, even run on land. Some can move faster than a human. In Water they Swim by using their large front flippers. True seal may sometimes call "hair seal" to distinguish them from the Fur seals and they belong to the family of Phocidae. They have no ear-flaps; all you can see of their ears are tiny holes. Their back flippers cannot turn forward under their bodies so earless seals move on land or ice by wiggling like caterpillars or slithering from side to side like snakes (Castellini, 2002). Seals, sea lions and walruses; all belong to a group of marine mammals called pinnipeds, which means "fin-footed". Marine mammals are just like the mammals that live on land environment; they are warm-blooded, breathe air to stay alive and give birth to live young that fed with milk. Seals are categorized into three families: Phocidae, true seals; Otariidae, eared seals and Odobenidae, walruses. The walrus has just one species. They are big seals with long teeth called tusks that they use to make breathing holes in ice and to help them climb out onto the ice. They can only be found in the arctic region and not in Antarctic. The eared seals include five species ...