Common Seal

Phoca vitulina Linnaeus 1758

Scott Bowers cc-by-nc

Phoca vitulina (Common Seal) is a species of mammals in the family true seals. They are associated with freshwater habitat. They are native to Arctic Ocean, the Palearctic, The Nearctic, Atlantic Ocean, and Pacific Ocean. They are solitary, diurnal carnivores. Individuals are known to live for 480 months and can grow to 186 cm. Reproduction is viviparous. They have parental care (female provides care). They rely on swimming and lift powered swimming to move around.

URI: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00000873
Definition: A biome that applies to the freshwater realm.

show all records

URI: http://www.marineregions.org/mrgid/1906

show all records

URI: https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q106447
Definition: largest of the eight ecozones constituting the Earth's surface
Attribution: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palearctic.png

show all records

URI: https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q737742
Definition: one of the eight terrestrial ecozones constituting the Earth's land surface
Attribution: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ecozone_Nearctic.svg

show all records

URI: http://www.marineregions.org/mrgid/1902

show all records

URI: http://www.marineregions.org/mrgid/1903

show all records

URI: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q81875
Definition: organism that eats mostly or exclusively animal tissue

show all records

URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/solitary
Definition: Solitary animals are those that spend a majority of their lives without others of their species, with possible exceptions for mating and raising their young. The antonym to a solitary animal is a social animal.
Attribution: https://www.definitions.net/definition/solitary+animal

show all records

URI: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q906470
Definition: animal behavior characterized by activity during the day, with a period of inactivity at night.

show all records

URI: http://www.marinespecies.org/traits/Viviparous
Definition: 1) Producing live offspring from within the body of the parent (Lincoln et al., 1998). 2) Development of an embryo within the body of the parent, in part, resources passing directly from parent to embryo (Barnes et al., 2006).
Attribution: Lincoln, R., Boxshall, G. & Clark, P., 1998. A dictionary of ecology, evolution and systematics (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University of Press. Barnes R.S.K., Calow P., Olive P.J.W., Golding, D.W, and Spicer, J.I. 2006. The invertebrates: a new synthesis, Oxford: Blackwell Science Ltd. http://www.marinespecies.org/traits/wiki/Traits:Viviparous

show all records

URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/parentalCareFemale
Definition: the female feeds and nurtures offspring
Attribution: Richard M. Sibly, Christopher C. Witt, Natalie A. Wright, Chris Venditti, Walter Jetz, and James H. Brown. 2012. Energetics, lifestyle, and reproduction in birds. PNAS 109(27):10937-10941, doi:10.1073/pnas.1206512109

show all records

URI: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GO_0036268
Definition: Self-propelled movement of an organism from one location to another through water, often by means of active fin movement.

show all records

URI: https://eol.org/schema/terms/lift_based_swimming
Definition: Hydrofoils, or fins, are used to push against the water to create a normal force to provide thrust, propelling the animal through water. The reduction of fin cross-sectional area helps to minimize drag, and therefore increase efficiency. Regardless of size of the animal, at any particular speed, maximum possible lift is proportional to (wing area) x (speed)<sup>2</sup>. Dolphins and whales have large, horizontal caudal hydrofoils, while many fish and sharks have vertical caudal hydrofoils.

show all records

EOL has data for 68 attributes, including:

age at eye opening
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/AgeAtEyeOpening
- Definition: Age at which both eyes are fully open after birth.
- Comment: Add to VT postnatal growth trait ontology
- Attribution: Kate E. Jones, Jon Bielby, Marcel Cardillo, Susanne A. Fritz, Justin O''Dell, C. David L. Orme, Kamran Safi, Wes Sechrest, Elizabeth H. Boakes, Chris Carbone, Christina Connolly, Michael J. Cutts, Janine K. Foster, Richard Grenyer, Michael Habib, Christopher A. Plaster, Samantha A. Price, Elizabeth A. Rigby, Janna Rist, Amber Teacher, Olaf R. P. Bininda-Emonds, John L. Gittleman, Georgina M. Mace, and Andy Purvis. 2009. PanTHERIA, a species-level database of life history, ecology, and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals. Ecology 90:2648. http://esapubs.org/archive/ecol/E090/184/
show all records
0 days
age at maturity
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/AgeAtMaturity
- Definition: Age at the first successful reproduction.
show all records
1095 days
body shape
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/BodyShape
show all records
bilaterally symmetric
- URI: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/PATO_0001324
- Definition: being symmetric about a plane running from frontal end to caudal end (head to tail), and having nearly identical right and left halves
show all records
diet breadth
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/DietBreadth
- Definition: Number of dietary categories eaten by an organism.
show all records
1
diet includes
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/Diet
- Definition: Information about the items eaten by this organism.
show all records
crustaceans
- URI: https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q25364
- Definition: subphylum of arthropods
show all records
dispersal age
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/DispersalAge
- Definition: Age at which young permanently leave the parent, parental group, social group or any associated territories.
show all records
38.49 days
ecomorphological guild
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/EcomorphologicalGuild
- Definition: organisms that share certain morphological traits due to adaptation to similar environments and ecological roles
show all records
nectonic
- URI: http://www.marinespecies.org/traits/Nekton
- Definition: Active swimming organisms that live in the water column and are able to move independently of the water mass (adapted from Lincoln et al., 1998).
- Attribution: http://www.marinespecies.org/traits/wiki/Traits:Nekton
show all records
first appearance
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/FossilFirst
- Definition: The first appearance of this taxon in the fossil record.
show all records
2.588 million years ago
habitat breadth
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/HabitatBreadth
- Definition: Number of habitat layers used by an organism
show all records
2
inter-birth interval
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/InterBirthInterval
- Definition: The length of time between successive births of a female.
show all records
365 days
litters per year
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/LittersPerYear
- Definition: Number of litters per female per year
show all records
1
mating system
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/MatingSystem
show all records
polygynous
- URI: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ECOCORE_00000065
- Definition: One male has an exclusive mating relationship with two or more females
show all records

Known occurrences, collected specimens and observations of Common Seal. View this species on GBIF

Scott Bowers cc-by-nc

Common Seal includes 5 children: