page_title: Enaliarctos
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Enaliarctos / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Reconstruction of the primitive seal Enaliarctos emlongi, of Miocene California, in comparison with the head of the whale, Macrodelphinus (C) Stanton F. Fink
context_page_description: Enaliarctos is an extinct genus of pinniped, and may represent the ancestor to all pinnipeds. Prior to the discovery of Puijila, the five species in the genus Enaliarctos represented the oldest known pinniped fossils, having been recovered from late Oligocene and early Miocene strata of California and Oregon.
context_section_description: It had a short tail and developed limbs with webbed feet. Unlike modern sea lions, it had a set of slicing carnassials; the presence of slicing teeth (rather than purely piercing teeth as in modern fish-eating pinnipeds) suggests that Enaliarctos needed to return to shore with prey items in order to masticate and ingest them. Still, Enaliarctos had some sea lion-like characteristics, such as large eyes, sensitive whiskers, and a specialized inner ear for hearing underwater.
caption: E. emlongi and Macrodelphinus (background)
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