Seals and sea lions: a comparison
Seals and sea lions: a comparison
While seals and sea lions share a common ancestor and are both members of the sub-class of animals known as fin-legs, which includes a variety of marine mammals with strikingly similar outward appearances, seal is distinct from sea lion upon closer inspection. The most obvious distinctions between them are in their external appearance (for example, their ears and fins) and their behavior; to learn why, we need to examine the traits shared by members of their family.
Explain the meaning of the term “flippers.”
There are 33 species in the subclass “finnipods,” which are divided among three families: the Otariidae, which includes seal and sea lions, the Odobenidae, which includes walruses (the largest marine mammal in the finpod family), and the Phocidae, which includes true seal (fur seal).
The dissimilarities between sea lions and seals
Because they lack external ears and instead have two ear holes in their skulls, members of the family Otariidae are sometimes referred to as “ear seal” to differentiate them from their more similar relatives, the sea lion and the seal. Phocidae seals are often referred to as “seal without ears” due to their lack of external auditory canals.
Both seal and sea lion have long fins and can rotate their caudal fins so that they can put that fin under their bodies and walk on land, but true seal cannot. When on land, a true seal crawls on its stomach due to the inability to rotate its fins under its body.
Their swimming styles also vary since actual seals have relatively small front fins, similar to those of sea lions and walruses. To swim, seal utilizes their hind fins in a manner similar to that of fish, flicking them from side to side.
Both sea lions and seals use their front flippers like oars to push them through the water; however, seals have short, stocky forefeet, thin webbed fins, and claws in their toes, whereas sea lion flippers are coated in leather and lack claws.
Which one is better suited to life under the sea?
Since their caudal fin points backwards and their bodies are more nimble than those of sea lions, seals are naturally more versatile in the water than other mammals.
Sea lions and seals are quite vocal since they travel in packs on land, but genuine seals are solitary creatures that spend most of their time underwater and make more of a grunting sound than a howling one.