Sample records for pinnipedia
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Pinnipedia belonging to collection of Department of Paleontology of the Science Faculty
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Perez Garcia, M.
1998-01-01
Pinnipedia belonging to collection of Department of Paleontology, Facultad de Ciencias, are shown. They are an astragalus and partial humerus, found the former in the coast of Departamento of San Jose and the latter in Rocha Department. The astragalus is assigned to Arctocephalus (southern fur seal) and humerus to Phocidae. (author)
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Evidence for positive selection on the leptin gene in Cetacea and Pinnipedia.
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Li Yu
Full Text Available The leptin gene has received intensive attention and scientific investigation for its importance in energy homeostasis and reproductive regulation in mammals. Furthermore, study of the leptin gene is of crucial importance for public health, particularly for its role in obesity, as well as for other numerous physiological roles that it plays in mammals. In the present work, we report the identification of novel leptin genes in 4 species of Cetacea, and a comparison with 55 publicly available leptin sequences from mammalian genome assemblies and previous studies. Our study provides evidence for positive selection in the suborder Odontoceti (toothed whales of the Cetacea and the family Phocidae (earless seals of the Pinnipedia. We also detected positive selection in several leptin gene residues in these two lineages. To test whether leptin and its receptor evolved in a coordinated manner, we analyzed 24 leptin receptor gene (LPR sequences from available mammalian genome assemblies and other published data. Unlike the case of leptin, our analyses did not find evidence of positive selection for LPR across the Cetacea and Pinnipedia lineages. In line with this, positively selected sites identified in the leptin genes of these two lineages were located outside of leptin receptor binding sites, which at least partially explains why co-evolution of leptin and its receptor was not observed in the present study. Our study provides interesting insights into current understanding of the evolution of mammalian leptin genes in response to selective pressures from life in an aquatic environment, and leads to a hypothesis that new tissue specificity or novel physiologic functions of leptin genes may have arisen in both odontocetes and phocids. Additional data from other species encompassing varying life histories and functional tests of the adaptive role of the amino acid changes identified in this study will help determine the factors that promote the adaptive
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Violetta R Beklemisheva
Full Text Available Karyotype evolution in Carnivora is thoroughly studied by classical and molecular cytogenetics and supplemented by reconstructions of Ancestral Carnivora Karyotype (ACK. However chromosome painting information from two pinniped families (Odobenidae and Otariidae is noticeably missing. We report on the construction of the comparative chromosome map for species from each of the three pinniped families: the walrus (Odobenus rosmarus, Odobenidae-monotypic family, near threatened Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus, Otariidae and the endemic Baikal seal (Pusa sibirica, Phocidae using combination of human, domestic dog and stone marten whole-chromosome painting probes. The earliest karyological studies of Pinnipedia showed that pinnipeds were characterized by a pronounced karyological conservatism that is confirmed here with species from Phocidae, Otariidae and Odobenidae sharing same low number of conserved human autosomal segments (32. Chromosome painting in Pinnipedia and comparison with non-pinniped carnivore karyotypes provide strong support for refined structure of ACK with 2n = 38. Constructed comparative chromosome maps show that pinniped karyotype evolution was characterized by few tandem fusions, seemingly absent inversions and slow rate of genome rearrangements (less then one rearrangement per 10 million years. Integrative comparative analyses with published chromosome painting of Phoca vitulina revealed common cytogenetic signature for Phoca/Pusa branch and supports Phocidae and Otaroidea (Otariidae/Odobenidae as sister groups. We revealed rearrangements specific for walrus karyotype and found the chromosomal signature linking together families Otariidae and Odobenidae. The Steller sea lion karyotype is the most conserved among three studied species and differs from the ACK by single fusion. The study underlined the strikingly slow karyotype evolution of the Pinnipedia in general and the Otariidae in particular.
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Patrick Waindok
2018-04-01
Full Text Available Harbour seals (Phoca vitulina and grey seals (Halichoerus grypus are final hosts of acanthocephalans in the German North and Baltic Seas. Parasitic infections in seals can cause pathological changes, which may result in deteriorated health of the host. Common gastrointestinal parasites of harbour and grey seals are acanthocephalans and a number of 275 of 2460 (11.2% investigated seals from 1996 to 2013 were infected with Corynosoma spp. (Acanthocephala, Polymorphidae. The prevalence showed a wave-like pattern: it increased from 1.2% and 0.4% in 1996 and 1997, respectively, to 23.9% during the second phocine distemper epizootic in 2002 and decreased to 6.2% in 2004. In 2005, prevalence peaked again with 25.0% followed by a decrease to 9.3% in 2009 and an increase to 38.5% in 2012. Statistical analysis revealed that harbour seals originating from the North Sea showed a higher prevalence than grey seals, whereas no significant difference between grey and harbour seals from the Baltic Sea was observed. Furthermore, juvenile pinnipedia from the North Sea were significantly less infected with Corynosoma spp. than seals older than seven month. Molecular species identification as well as phylogenetic relationship analysis among the detected Corynosoma species were achieved by sequencing and comparisons of the ribosomal ITS1-5.8S-ITS2-complex and cytochrome-c-oxidase I gene. Molecular analysis resulted in a newly arranged distribution of Acanthocephala in the North Sea as in contrast to previous studies, C. strumosum could not be confirmed as predominant species. Instead, C. magdaleni and a C. magdaleni isolate (isolate Pv1NS with an atypical number of longitudinal rows of hooks at the proboscis were detected. Furthermore, morphological and molecular analyses indicate the possible finding of a cryptic species (Candidatus Corynosoma nortmeri sp. nov.. Keywords: Acanthocephala, Acantocephalans, Corynosoma, Seals, ITS, Cytochrome-c-oxidase, Marine parasites
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THE HELMINTH FAUNA OF MARINE MAMMALS IN THE LIGHT OF THEIR ECOLOGY AND PHYLOGENY,
A review is presented of various parasitic helminths found in marine animals, particularly Cetacea and Pinnipedia. The parasites are discussed in terms of their taxonomy, life cycle, geographic distribution, and ecology.
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50 CFR 18.2 - Scope of regulations.
2010-10-01
... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Scope of regulations. 18.2 Section 18.2 Wildlife and Fisheries UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR (CONTINUED... with respect to cetacea (whales and porpoises), pinnipedia, other than walrus (seals and sea lions...
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[The prevention of distemper in zoo animals].
Franke, V; Matern, B; Ackermann, O; Danner, K
1989-02-01
The distemper virus infection of different non-domestic carnivorous zoo animals is known since long. All species involved belonged to the suborder Fissipedia. In 1988 a distemper or morbillivirus-like infection occurred in harbour seals, a member of the suborder pinnipedia. For the prophylaxis of distemper in dogs attenuated live vaccines are commonly used. In zoo animals, however, these vaccines caused distemper several times. In contrast, an inactivated virus vaccine proved both its safety and efficacy in more than hundred zoo animals of various species.
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Schröder, Christiane; Bleidorn, Christoph; Hartmann, Stefanie; Tiedemann, Ralph
2009-12-15
Investigating the dog genome we found 178965 introns with a moderate length of 200-1000 bp. A screening of these sequences against 23 different repeat libraries to find insertions of short interspersed elements (SINEs) detected 45276 SINEs. Virtually all of these SINEs (98%) belong to the tRNA-derived Can-SINE family. Can-SINEs arose about 55 million years ago before Carnivora split into two basal groups, the Caniformia (dog-like carnivores) and the Feliformia (cat-like carnivores). Genome comparisons of dog and cat recovered 506 putatively informative SINE loci for caniformian phylogeny. In this study we show how to use such genome information of model organisms to research the phylogeny of related non-model species of interest. Investigating a dataset including representatives of all major caniformian lineages, we analysed 24 randomly chosen loci for 22 taxa. All loci were amplifiable and revealed 17 parsimony-informative SINE insertions. The screening for informative SINE insertions yields a large amount of sequence information, in particular of introns, which contain reliable phylogenetic information as well. A phylogenetic analysis of intron- and SINE sequence data provided a statistically robust phylogeny which is congruent with the absence/presence pattern of our SINE markers. This phylogeny strongly supports a sistergroup relationship of Musteloidea and Pinnipedia. Within Pinnipedia, we see strong support from bootstrapping and the presence of a SINE insertion for a sistergroup relationship of the walrus with the Otariidae.
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ORF Alignment: NC_003318 [GENIUS II[Archive
Lifescience Database Archive (English)
Full Text Available NC_003318 gi|17989189 >1bxwA 4 170 40 240 2e-16 ... gb|AAN33618.1| outer membrane protein Omp3...1 [Brucella suis 1330] gb|AAS84567.1| ... Omp31 [Brucella cetaceae] gb|AAS84566.1| Omp31 [Br...ucella ... cetaceae] gb|AAS84565.1| Omp31 [Brucella pinnipediae] ... gb|AAS84564.1| Omp31 [Bru...nsis] ... gb|AAL27297.1| outer membrane protein Omp31 [Brucella ... melitensis biovar Neotomae...] gb|AAL27290.1| outer ... membrane protein Omp31 [Brucella melitensis biovar Suis] ... gb|AAL
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ORF Alignment: NC_004310 [GENIUS II[Archive
Lifescience Database Archive (English)
Full Text Available NC_004310 gi|23502485 >1bxwA 4 170 45 261 5e-15 ... gb|AAN30527.1| outer membrane protein Omp3...1 [Brucella suis 1330] gb|AAS84575.1| ... Omp31b [Brucella cetaceae] gb|AAS84574.1| Omp31b ... ... ... [Brucella cetaceae] gb|AAS84573.1| Omp31b [Brucella ... cetaceae] gb|AAS84572.1| Omp31b [Br...ucella pinnipediae] ... gb|AAS84571.1| Omp31b [Brucella melitensis biovar ... ... Neotomae] ref|NP_698612.1| outer membrane protein Omp31 ... [Brucella suis 1330] ...
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The majority of vitamin A is transported as retinyl esters in the blood of most carnivores.
Schweigert, F J; Ryder, O A; Rambeck, W A; Zucker, H
1990-01-01
1. In canines and mustelides total vitamin A was 10-50 times higher compared to other species due to a high amount of retinyl esters (40-99% of total vitamin A) in blood plasma. The dominant vitamin A ester was in most species retinyl stearate. 2. In Ursidae, Procyonidae, Viveridae and Felidae, total vitamin A was much lower. When present, however, retinyl esters also represented 10-65% of total vitamin A in plasma. 3. Only retinol was detected in plasma of the family, Hyaenidae, and the suborder, Pinnipedia. 4. In maned wolf cubs it was found that retinol, retinyl esters and alpha-tocopherol increased with the age of the animals, reaching values comparable to adult animals at the age of 5 months.
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Numerical anomalies in the dentition of southern fur seals and sea lions (Pinnipedia: Otariidae
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Carolina Loch
2010-06-01
Full Text Available Cases of dental agenesis, supernumerary teeth and dental losses are presented in three species of South American Otariids: Arctocephalus australis (Zimmermann, 1783, A. tropicalis (Gray, 1872 and Otaria flavescens (Shaw, 1800. For the first time, congenital and acquired dental anomalies were comparatively diagnosed in skull samples from southern Brazil and nearby areas. The skulls and mandibles were accessed in the scientific collection of mammals of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil. Agenesis was found only among maxillary post-canine teeth, especially the distal ones (PC/6, due to an evolutionary trend towards reduction of the number of post-canine teeth in this family. Maxillary and mandibular supernumerary teeth were found in A. australis and A. tropicalis, but their positioning is unrelated to cases regarding phylogenetic and evolutionary implications. Dental losses were found in all species and different stages of alveolar obliteration suggest that this process is common in Otariids and does not affect their survival. The investigation of congenital and acquired dental anomalies in pinnipeds can provide information on dental formula evolution in Pinnipeds and in the phylogenetic relationships among Carnivora.
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Kienle, Sarah S; Berta, Annalisa
2016-03-01
One adaptation crucial to the survival of mammalian lineages that secondarily transitioned from land to water environments was the ability to capture and consume prey underwater. Phocid seals have evolved diverse feeding strategies to feed in the marine environment, and the objectives of this study were to document the specialized feeding morphologies and identify feeding strategies used by extant phocids. This study used principal component analysis (PCA) to determine the major axes of diversification in the skull for all extant phocid taxa and the recently extinct Caribbean monk seal (n = 19). Prey data gathered from the literature and musculoskeletal data from dissections were included to provide a comprehensive description of each feeding strategy. Random Forest analysis was used to determine the morphological, ecological and phylogenetic variables that best described each feeding strategy. There is morphological evidence for four feeding strategies in phocids: filter; grip and tear; suction; and pierce feeding. These feeding strategies are supported by quantitative cranial and mandibular characters, dietary information, musculoskeletal data and, for some species, behavioral observations. Most phocid species are pierce feeders, using a combination of biting and suction to opportunistically catch prey. Grip and tear and filter feeding are specialized strategies with specific morphological adaptations. These unique adaptations have allowed leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) and crabeater seals (Lobodon carcinophaga) to exploit novel ecological niches and prey types. This study provides the first cranial and mandibular morphological evidence for the use of specialized suction feeding in hooded seals (Cystophora cristata), northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) and southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina). The most important variables in determining the feeding strategy of a given phocid species were cranial and mandibular shape, diet, and phylogeny. These results provide a framework for understanding the evolution and adaptability of feeding strategies employed by extant phocid species, and these findings can be applied to other pinniped lineages and extinct taxa. © 2015 Anatomical Society.
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Massimiliano Drago
2010-08-01
Full Text Available This study tests the hypothesis that female South American sea lions shift from off-shore, pelagic prey to coastal, benthic prey after parturition in order to reduce the foraging trip duration and hence the time pups remain unattended on the beach during early lactation. The δ13C and δ15N values of the serum and blood cells of 26 South American sea lion suckling pups from northern Patagonia were used to track the dietary changes of their mothers from late pregnancy to early lactation, after correction for differential isotopic fractionation between tissues. Primary producers and potential prey species were also analysed to establish a baseline for interpreting the stable isotope concentration of serum and blood cells. Isotopic ratios revealed a generalized increase in the consumption of coastal-benthic prey after parturition. Such a generalized post-partum shift will allow females to spend more time on land and look after their pups. The effects of this foraging strategy on the nutritional quality of the female’s diet are discussed.
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Patrícia Rodrigues Braunn
2004-06-01
Full Text Available Bone diseases and tooth alterations in 47 specimens of Otaria byronia (Blainville, 1820, from southern Brazilian coast, were analized. Tooth wear and the associated bone pathologies were determined, as well as their percentuals. The main infection was osteomyelitis associated with tooth alterations, such as fractures and attrition, both of them exposing the pulp chamber. Tooth attrition increases with age, favoring fractures and their complications, including osteomyelitis, causing a high frequency of them in specimens presenting more pronounced tooth wear. In one specimen tuberculosis was found in the maxilla, perhaps primarily pulmonary. The high frequency of enamel hypoplasia might reflect cyclic food deficit. Infections and tooth fractures might be related to behaviour, such as fishermen interaction, territorial fighting, and accidents during food capture.
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PFAS profiles in three North Sea top predators: metabolic differences among species?
Galatius, Anders; Bossi, Rossana; Sonne, Christian; Rigét, Frank Farsø; Kinze, Carl Christian; Lockyer, Christina; Teilmann, Jonas; Dietz, Rune
2013-11-01
Profiles of seven compounds of perfluoro-alkyl substances (PFASs) were compared among three species of top predators from the Danish North Sea: the white-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris), the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), and the harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). The seals had higher total burdens (757.8 ng g(-1) ww) than the dolphins (439.9 ng g(-1) ww) and the porpoises (355.8 ng g(-1) ww), probably a reflection of feeding closer to the shore and thus contamination sources. The most striking difference among the species was the relative contribution of perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA) to the profiles; the seals (0.1%) had much lower levels than porpoises (8.3%) and dolphins (26.0%). In combination with the values obtained from the literature, this result indicates that Carnivora species including Pinnipedia have a much higher capacity of transforming PFOSA to perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) than cetacean species. Another notable difference among the species was that the two smaller species (seals and porpoises) with supposedly higher metabolic rates had lower concentrations of the perfluorinated carboxylic acids, which are generally more easily excreted than perfluorinated sulfonamides. Species-specific characteristics should be recognized when PFAS contamination in marine mammals is investigated, for example, several previous studies of PFASs in cetaceans have not quantified PFOSA.
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Identification of Brucella genus and eight Brucella species by Luminex bead-based suspension array.
Lusk Pfefer, Tina S; Timme, Ruth; Kase, Julie A
2018-04-01
Globally, unpasteurized milk products are vehicles for the transmission of brucellosis, a zoonosis responsible for cases of foodborne illness in the United States and elsewhere. Existing PCR assays to detect Brucella species are restricted by the resolution of band sizes on a gel or the number of fluorescent channels in a single real-time system. The Luminex bead-based suspension array is performed in a 96-well plate allowing for high throughput screening of up to 100 targets in one sample with easily discernible results. We have developed an array using the Bio-Plex 200 to differentiate the most common Brucella species: B. abortus, B. melitensis, B. suis, B. suis bv5, B. canis, B. ovis, B. pinnipedia, and B. neotomae, as well as Brucella genus. All probes showed high specificity, with no cross-reaction with non-Brucella strains. We could detect pure DNA from B. abortus, B. melitensis, and genus-level Brucella at concentrations of ≤5 fg/μL. Pure DNA from all other species tested positive at concentrations well below 500 fg/μL and we positively identified B. neotomae in six artificially contaminated cheese and milk products. An intra-laboratory verification further demonstrated the assay's accuracy and robustness in the rapid screening (3-4 h including PCR) of DNA. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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Leonard Dewaele
2017-02-01
Full Text Available Background Prophoca and Leptophoca represent the oldest known genera of phocine seals, dating from the latest early to middle Miocene. Originally, Prophoca rousseaui and Prophoca proxima were described based on fragmentary remains from the Miocene of Belgium. However, several researchers contested the union of Prophoca rousseaui and Prophoca proxima into one genus, without providing evidence. The stratigraphic context of Prophoca remained poorly constrained due to the lack of precise data associated with the original specimens collected in the area of Antwerp (north of Belgium. Methods Prophoca and Leptophoca are redescribed and their phylogenetic position among Phocidae is reassessed using PAUP. Dinoflagellate biostratigraphy has been carried out on sediment samples associated with specimens from Prophoca and Leptophoca to elucidate their approximate ages. Results Whereas the species Prophoca rousseaui is redescribed, Prophoca proxima is considered synonymous to Leptophoca lenis, with the proposal of a new combination Leptophoca proxima (Van Beneden, 1877. Sediment samples from specimens of both taxa have been dated to the late Langhian–early Serravallian (middle Miocene. Following a reinvestigation of Leptophoca amphiatlantica, characters from the original diagnosis are questioned and the specimens of Leptophoca amphiatlantica are considered Leptophoca cf. L. proxima. In a phylogenetic analysis, Prophoca rousseaui and Leptophoca proxima constitute early branching stem-phocines. Discussion Leptophoca proxima from the North Sea Basin is younger than the oldest known find of Leptophoca proxima from North America, which does not contradict the hypothesis that Phocinae originated along the east coast of North America during the late early Miocene, followed by dispersal to Europe shortly after. Morphological features of the appendicular skeleton indicate that Prophoca rousseaui and Leptophoca proxima have archaic locomotory modes, retaining a more prominent use of the fore flipper for aquatic propulsion than extant Phocidae.
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Energetic tradeoffs control the size distribution of aquatic mammals
Gearty, William; McClain, Craig R.; Payne, Jonathan L.
2018-04-01
Four extant lineages of mammals have invaded and diversified in the water: Sirenia, Cetacea, Pinnipedia, and Lutrinae. Most of these aquatic clades are larger bodied, on average, than their closest land-dwelling relatives, but the extent to which potential ecological, biomechanical, and physiological controls contributed to this pattern remains untested quantitatively. Here, we use previously published data on the body masses of 3,859 living and 2,999 fossil mammal species to examine the evolutionary trajectories of body size in aquatic mammals through both comparative phylogenetic analysis and examination of the fossil record. Both methods indicate that the evolution of an aquatic lifestyle is driving three of the four extant aquatic mammal clades toward a size attractor at ˜500 kg. The existence of this body size attractor and the relatively rapid selection toward, and limited deviation from, this attractor rule out most hypothesized drivers of size increase. These three independent body size increases and a shared aquatic optimum size are consistent with control by differences in the scaling of energetic intake and cost functions with body size between the terrestrial and aquatic realms. Under this energetic model, thermoregulatory costs constrain minimum size, whereas limitations on feeding efficiency constrain maximum size. The optimum size occurs at an intermediate value where thermoregulatory costs are low but feeding efficiency remains high. Rather than being released from size pressures, water-dwelling mammals are driven and confined to larger body sizes by the strict energetic demands of the aquatic medium.
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Samuel Gomes de Farias Júnior
2005-05-01
Full Text Available On May 12, 2003, a crabeater seal (Lobodon carcinophagus was seen 3km upstream of the mouth of the Cação River (22º54’S; 43º50’W, southern Rio de Janeiro State. It was a female of 212cm in length, weighing approximately 180kg. A week prior (May 5, the same specimen (identified by a parallel scar pattern had been observed at Costão Beach (24º19’S; 47º00’W, Peruíbe, São Paulo State. Two days later, the animal reappeared at Barra do Sahy Beach (23º47’S; 45º33’W, São Sebastião, São Paulo. Subsequently, the seal’s further northerly displacement to Cação River made a total distance covered of 229km. The occurrence of two cold fronts and the prevalence of southern currents in the first fortnight of May may have favored the displacement of this Ocorrência de Lobodon carcinophagus no Rio de Janeiro animal to areas of low latitude in southeastern Brazil. On June 16, 2003, a male of approximately 200cm in length was seen in Tombo Beach (24º00’S ; 46º18’W, Guarujá (São Paulo. It was the second appearance of L. carcinophagus in São Paulo in 41 days. This note confirms the occasional occurrence of this species along the Brazilian coast, and provides insights into the dispersion of the species in the southwestern Atlantic.
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Bree, van P.J.H.
1997-01-01
In the past extralimital finds of arctic seals on the Westeuropean continental coast (northern Denmark to southern Spain) were rarely recorded. At present much more cases are known. According to the author this is due to more naturalists visiting the coasts, more and better identification manuals,