A FOSSIL of a small, otter-like animal from the Canadian Arctic provides clues to how seals got their flippers.
We know that seals and sea lions, aka pinnipeds, evolved from land animals and are closely related to bears and weasels. But until now few intermediate fossils bridged the gap between these terrestrial ancestors and the sleek, flippered pinnipeds.
The new fossil, uncovered by of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa and her team does just that. Rybczynski’s team found the fossil, dubbed , in freshwater sediments on Devon Island in the Canadian high Arctic. ±Ê³Ü¾±Âá¾±±ô²¹â€™s teeth and skull indicate that it is a primitive pinniped – but instead of flippers, the animal seems to have had long, webbed feet much like the modern giant river otter of South America (Nature, ).
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Puijila lived about 21 to 24 million years ago, when Arctic regions were much warmer than today. Lakes would probably still have frozen in winter, though, so the animal might have wandered onto land in search of food as otters do today, says Rybczynski. In fact, the need for food may have encouraged them to venture into the oceans, too, which would have remained ice-free for more of the year, driving the evolution of modern-day pinnipeds in the Arctic.
