Odobenidae is a family of

pinniped Pinnipeds (pronounced ), commonly known as seals, are a widely range (biology), distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammals. They comprise the extant taxon, extant families Odobenidae (whose onl ...

s, of which the only extant species is the

walrus The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large pinniped marine mammal with discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. It is the only extant species in the family Odobeni ...

(''Odobenus rosmarus''). In the past, however, the group was much more diverse, and includes more than a dozen fossil genera.

Taxonomy

All genera, except '' Odobenus'', are extinct. *†'' Archaeodobenus'' *†'' Prototaria'' *†'' Proneotherium'' *†'' Nanodobenus'' *†'' Neotherium'' *†'' Imagotaria'' *†'' Kamtschatarctos'' *†''

Pelagiarctos ''Pelagiarctos'' was a genus of walrus that lived during the Mid Miocene, approx. 13-15 mya. Its remains have been found in the Sharktooth Hill Bonebed, in Kern County, California. It was originally described as an Otariidae, though it is no ...

'' *†''

Pontolis ''Pontolis'' is an extinct genus of large walrus. It contained three species, ''P. magnus'', ''P. barroni'', and ''P. kohnoi''. Like all pinnipeds, ''Pontolis'' was a heavily built amphibious carnivore. ''Pontolis'' lived along the Pacific coast ...

'' *†'' Pseudotaria'' *†'' Titanotaria'' *Clade Neodobenia **†'' Gomphotaria'' **Subfamily Dusignathinae ***†'' Dusignathus'' **Subfamily Odobeninae ***†'' Aivukus'' ***†''

Ontocetus ''Ontocetus'' is an extinct genus of walrus, an aquatic carnivoran of the family Odobenidae, endemic to coastal regions of the southern North Sea and the southeastern coastal regions of the U.S. during the Miocene-Pleistocene. It lived from 1 ...

'' ***†'' Pliopedia'' ***†'' Protodobenus'' ***†'' Valenictus'' ***'' Odobenus'' In re-analyzing ''Pelagiarctos'', Boessenecker et al. (2013) proposed the phylogenetic relationships of Odobenidae as follows (this analysis excluded ''Archaeodobenus, Titanotaria, Nanodobenus,'' and ''Pliopedia;'' and included ''Enaliarctos, Pteronarctos, Allodesmus, Desmatophoca, Callorhinus, Monachus,'' and ''Erignathus''):

Taxonomy

References

Further reading