PINNIPEDIA PHOCIDAE
HARBOR SEAL Phoca vitulina richardsi
Yin, 4th Trine, Fixed Element Water
ARCTIC ZODIAC 12 YEAR CYCLE OF THE SEAL:
1923 1935 1947 1959 1971 1983 1995 2007 2019 2031
Honest, gallant, sturdy, sociable, peace-loving, patient, loyal, hard-working, trusting, sincere, calm, understanding, thoughtful, scrupulous, passionate, intelligent. Can be naïve, over-reliant, self-indulgent, gullible, fatalistic, materialistic.
Order: Pinnipedia
Pinnipeds are seals, sea lions, and walruses
Family: Phocidae
Phocidae includes all true seals. True seals lack external ear flaps; have a stout, round body; and are unable to rotate their hind flippers.
Genus species: Phoca vitulina
Subspecies: richardsi, vitulina, concolor, mellonae, stejnegeri
Common name: harbor seal, common seal
Fossil Records:
The earliest phocid fossils date back 12 to 15 million years.
Ancestral phocids gave rise to modern harbor seals, which appeared in the North Pacific two to three million years ago when the Bering Strait formed.
The skeleton and limb structure of pinnipeds show that the ancestors of harbor seals once were able to walk on land. Scientists, however, have not found fossil evidence to identify a common ancestor with living land mammals.
