Lobodon carcinophaga

• Main Authors: Russell A. Mittermeier, Don E. Wilson
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Lynx Edicions 2014
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Chordata; Mammalia; Carnivora; Phocidae; Lobodon; Lobodon carcinophaga; Crabeater Seal; Crabeater Seals; South Orkney Islands; South pole; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6607230; http://treatment.plazi.org/id/464F694FFFADA850FF31D2229C28FBC6

7. Crabeater Seal Lobodon carcinophaga French: Phogue crabier / German: Krabbenfresser / Spanish: Foca cangrejera Taxonomy. Phoca carcinophaga Hombron & Jacquinot, 1842, no type locality given. Identified by J. B. Hombron and H. Jacquinot in 1853 as “sur les glaces du Pole Sud, entre les iles Sandwich et les iles Powels, a 150 lieues de distance de chacune de ces iles.” (= about the ice of the south pole, between [south] Sandwich and Powel [= south Orkney] Islands, 150 leagues [= 724 km] distance from each of these islands). The specific epithet is often changed from the original feminine form, carcinophaga, and given incorrectly in the masculine form, carcinophagus, because it was recombined with the masculine name Lobodon. Here, carcinophaga (meaning crab eater) is a compound “noun in apposition,” and according the International Committee on Zoological Nomenclature, it should not be changed from the original spelling when recombined with a masculine generic name. Monotypic. Distribution. Circumpolar in the Southern Ocean. Descriptive notes. Total length averaged 230-9 cm (SD + 11-4 cm, males) and 235-6 cm (SD + 11-8 cm, females); weight averaged 198-7 kg (SD + 16-9 kg, males) and 206-5 kg (SD + 22-6 kg, females). Newborns are c.114 cm in length and weigh c.36 kg. Adult female Crabeater Seals tend to be longer and heavier than males. Crabeater Seals have long slender bodies with relatively long front flippers and slender, long, and upturned snouts. Offspring have a short thick tan to grayish lanugo (fine, soft hair) that they molt when they are weaned at c.3—4 weeks old. During most of the year, adults have a uniform brown to yellowish dorsal pelage and a lighter ventral pelage, with dark blotches on sides particularly around front and rear flippers. After they molt old hair, they have a mostly dark-gray to silver background, darker dorsally and lighter ventrally, with some light spots scattered on dorsal pelage. Post-canine teeth are specifically adapted and multicusped for straining seawater and catching ...