File:Wilhelm Kuhnert - Common Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina).jpg

Identifier: americanaunivers14newy (find matches)
Title: The Americana; a universal reference library, comprising the arts and sciences, literature, history, biography, geography, commerce, etc., of the world
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Publisher: New York : Scientific American Compiling Dept.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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small groups of the commoner species are foundwidely scattered over the globe. The fur sealsare more or less widely distributed throughoutthe southern seas, but are found at the presenttime chiefly in the North Pacific Ocean andBering Sea. They are not found in the NorthAtlantic. The hair seal belongs to the suborderof the Pinnipedia and has feet not truly planti-grade, short with long claws. The posteriorlimbs only are used in swimming and are notsusceptible of bending forward at the knee.When on land the animal cannot walk or run,but merely wriggles with a belly-wise motion,the neck being short and the head scarcely capa-ble of being raised. There is no external ear.The fur seals belong to the suborder of theGressigrada. The feet are plantigrade, the ante-rior limbs only being used in swimming, havingrudimentary claws, if any. The head and neckcan be raised as in the bear. The external ear ismoderately developed, and the animal can runor lope along the ground as do ordinary mam- t I
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O33 2: o o I k SEALS mals and with considerable rapidity. The inter-nal structure of the two animals shows equallymarked differences. The hair seals, whatevertheir origin, must have come from a differentparent stock and their relation to land carnivoramust be more remote. Beyond the fact thatboth are carnivorous mammals, feeding on fishand perfectly adapted to life in the water, thetwo animals have little in common. In boththe thick blubber goes with life in the icy watersof the north. They resort, in one case to certainisland shores, in the other to the ice floes, tobring forth and rear their young. But theseresemblances, associated with aquatic habitat, areonly analogies and have no value in scientific■classification. In structure, appearance, degreeof intelligence, habits, disposition, and methodof locomotion, the two types are entirely distinctand their evolution as pelagic animals has beenalong separate lines. Hair Seals.—The hair seals are found ofT thecoasts of Newfoundland

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