Arctocephalus Townsendi Distribution
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The genus ''Arctocephalus'' consists of the southern
fur seals Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds belonging to the subfamily Arctocephalinae in the family Otariidae. They are much more closely related to sea lions than true seals, and share with them external ears ( pinnae), relatively long a ...
. ''Arctocephalus'' translates to "bear head."


Taxonomy

The number of species within the genus has been questioned, primarily based on limited molecular data. The issue is complicated because some of the species are able to produce fertile
hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...
s. A recent review recommended the retention of seven species, deprecating the New Zealand fur seals to a subspecies of the South American fur seal, while also questioning the status of the Guadalupe fur seal. Other recent studies have indicated the genus may be
paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...
, and some taxonomic reshuffling was previously done to account for this; however, more recent studies support it being
monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...
, with the alleged paraphyly being a consequence of
incomplete lineage sorting Incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) (also referred to as hemiplasy, deep coalescence, retention of ancestral polymorphism, or trans-species polymorphism) is a phenomenon in evolutionary biology and population genetics that results in discordance bet ...
.


Extant Species


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q776652 Carnivoran genera Taxa named by Frédéric Cuvier