Back عجل البحر Arabic عجل البحر ARZ Otariidae AST Piakol (Otariidae) AVK Qulaqlı suitilər Azerbaijani قۇلاقلی سۇ ایتیلر AZB Вушастыя цюлені Byelorussian Сіваковыя BE-X-OLD Ушати тюлени Bulgarian Otariidae Breton
| Eared seals | |
|---|---|
| |
| An Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Clade: | Pinnipedia |
| Clade: | Panotariidae |
| Family: | Otariidae Gray, 1825 |
| Type genus | |
| Otaria Péron, 1816
| |
| Genera | |
|
Arctocephalus | |
An eared seal, otariid, or otary is any member of the marine mammal family Otariidae, one of three groupings of pinnipeds. They comprise 15 extant species in seven genera (another species became extinct in the 1950s) and are commonly known either as sea lions or fur seals, distinct from true seals (phocids) and the walrus (odobenids). Otariids are adapted to a semiaquatic lifestyle, feeding and migrating in the water, but breeding and resting on land or ice. They reside in subpolar, temperate, and equatorial waters throughout the Pacific and Southern Oceans, the southern Indian, and Atlantic Oceans. They are conspicuously absent in the north Atlantic.
The words "otariid" and "otary" come from the Greek otarion meaning "little ear",[2] referring to the small but visible external ear flaps (pinnae), which distinguishes them from the phocids.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
eotariawas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Otary, n., etymology of" The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. http://dictionary.oed.com/ Archived 2006-06-25 at the Wayback Machine Accessed November 2007