Pinniped Genera

This group gathers Mammal Genera subcategory members belonging to the pinnipeds, the fin-footed marine carnivorans, taxonomically nested within Carnivora despite their fully aquatic lifestyle and torpedo-shaped, flippered body plan. It spans the eared seals of the family Otariidae, the sea lions and fur seals, which retain visible external ears and can rotate their hind flippers forward to walk on land, the walrus, the sole living genus Odobenus, distinguished by its long tusks, and the earless or true seals of the family Phocidae, which lack external ears and move on land by awkward body undulation rather than walking, among them the elephant seals of the genus Mirounga, the largest of all pinnipeds, and the ice-breeding harp, ringed, ribbon and Weddell seal genera of the polar regions.