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- In Australia, we have fur seals and sea lions that have wing-like front flippers specialized for swimming, while in the Northern Hemisphere, grey and harbor seals have stubby, clawed paws and swim with their feet.
phys.org/news/2021-05-biologists-reveal-evolved.pdfEngineers and biologists join forces to reveal how seals ...
May 7, 2021 · Seals and sea lions propel themselves through the water to catch their prey – but true seals (otariids) generally use their front flippers while eared seals (phocids) use their back feet, and...
May 7, 2021 · Despite living in the same environment and doing largely the same things, seals have evolved two distinct ways to swim. One group of seals chiefly use their feet to propel them through the water, while the other uses their flippers to swim.
- Swimming
- Diving
- Respiration
- Sleep
- Thermoregulation
Harbor seals swim with all four flippers: they move their hind flippers from side to side to propel themselves forward, and use their foreflippers to help them steer.Harbor seals can swim forward and upside-down. They rarely swim backward.Harbor seals can swim up to 19 kph (12 mph), but they generally cruise at slower speeds.Harbor seals can dive to depths exceeding 200 m (656 ft.). They don't routinely dive this deep, however, since most of their food is found in shallow waters.Adult harbor seals can stay submerged for up to 30 minutes, but dives usually last only about three minutes. A two-day-old harbor seal pup can stay submerged for up to two minutes.All marine mammals have special physiological adaptations for diving. These adaptations enable a harbor seal to conserve oxygen while it is under water.Before a deep dive, a harbor seal exhales to reduce the amount of air in its lungs. Oxygen is stored in the blood and muscle tissues, rather than in the lungs.Like most other marine mammals, a harbor seal's typical respiration cycle is a short exhalation, a short inhalation, and a longer breath-holding (apnea) period.
Harbor seals sleep on land or in the water. In the water they sleep at the surface and often assume a posture known as bottling - their entire bodies remain submerged with just their heads exposed. This enables them to breathe when necessary.
A harbor seal's core temperature is about 37.8°C (100°F). There is a heat gradient throughout the blubber from the body core to the skin. The skin remains about one degree Celsius warmer than surro...Harbor seals have a metabolic rate somewhat higher than land mammals of the same size. This helps them generate body heat for warmth.A thick layer of blubber insulates the harbor seal, reducing heat loss. The blubber of a northern Pacific harbor seal during winter may account for 27% to 30% of its total body mass. Blubber also s...In cold water, blood is shunted inward as blood vessels in the skin constrict, reducing heat loss to the environment.Feb 9, 2023 · All the seal’s senses are adapted for life underwater. Their comparatively large eyes can see just as well in water as they can in the air. Ice seals have had to further adapt their eyes to cope with the high levels of ultraviolet radiation common in snowbound environments.
Sep 26, 2024 · Seals cannot swim as fast as dolphins or whales but are more agile in the water. When swimming, a true seal uses its forelimbs to maneuver in the water, propelling its body forward with side-to-side strokes of its hind limbs.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
May 6, 2021 · This discovery shows how wing-like flippers can evolve in seals that already swim with their back feet, providing a pathway for the evolution of forelimb swimming in the fur seals and sea lions.
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May 7, 2021 · New research combines cutting-edge engineering with animal behaviour to explain the origins of efficient swimming in Nature’s underwater acrobats: Seals and Sea Lions. Seals and sea lions are fast swimming ocean predators that use their flippers to literally fly through the water.
