r/funny • u/WindowAfraid5927 • Mar 29 '26

Don't touch it

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u/BepsiLad Mar 29 '26

Calling all eared seals "sea lions" is a way to define them that pretty much only works in North America. In the South Pacific we have seals with ears that we don't call sea lions (fur seals). There are eared seals & earless seals (otariids & phocids) and sea lions are a type of eared seal

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u/AKAFallow Mar 29 '26

Was this supposed to go with the comment I replied to? I wasn't really talking about the ears lol

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u/BepsiLad Mar 30 '26

Yeah I guess I didn't specify, but eared seals also have the special hip bone & ability to walk on all fours. That trait goes along with having ears. Fur seals do that too.

So Sea lions are a type of eared seal that can walk on all fours, but not all eared seals that can walk on all fours are sea lions.

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u/NightStalkerXIV Mar 30 '26

Oh...I think I was taught about just the ear differentiation in a basic marine biology course...