Northern Fur Seal Male Skull

$236.00

The Northern Fur Seal ranges in the Pacific ocean from California to southern Alaska. Fur seals have thick pelage that aids to insulate this cold water species. They are solitary while at sea but congregates in groups numbering over a million during breeding seasons.

Description

Northern Fur Seal Male Skull measures 9.4 inches. Northern Fur Seal Male Skull is museum quality cast in polyurethane resins. Made in USA. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). Our precise skull can be used as a teaching tool, museum skull exhibit, home décor skull, or office décor skull.

The Northern fur seal or Callorhinus ursinus is an eared seal found along the north Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea, and the Sea of Okhotsk. It is the largest member of the fur seal subfamily (Arctocephalinae) and the only living species in the genus Callorhinus.

A single fossil species, Callorhinus gilmorei, is known from the Pliocene of Japan and western North America. The head is foreshortened in both sexes because of the very short, down-curved muzzle, and small nose, which extends slightly beyond the mouth in females and moderately in males.

The Northern fur seal or Callorhinus ursinus fur is thick and luxuriant, with a dense underfur in a creamy color. The underfur is obscured by the longer guard hairs, although it is partially visible when the animals are wet.

Features of both fore and hind flippers are unique and diagnostic of the species. Fur is absent on the top of the fore flippers and an abrupt “clean line” is seen across the wrist where the fur ends.

The Northern fur seal or Callorhinus ursinus teeth are sharp, conical and mostly single-rooted, as is common with carnivorous marine mammals adapted to tearing fish flesh. The upper canines are prominent.

Northern fur seal or Callorhinus ursinus are built for efficient terrestrial locomotion. Their hind limbs are in a plantigrade stance and are able to rotate under the body for quadrupedal locomotion and support.

When swimming, there are two different types of movement: locomotion and diving. These seals swim primarily with forelimb propulsion due to their physiology. Northern fur seal or Callorhinus ursinus have flexible joints between vertebrae for better maneuverability in the water as well as “greater muscular leverage” for pectoral strokes.

Stroke patterns are different for different dive types and locomotion, and stroke rates vary for individuals since there’s a relationship between maximum stroke rate and body size.

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Additional information

Weight 9 lbs
Dimensions 9.4 in
Northern Fur Seal Facts:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Clade: Pinnipedia
Family: Otariidae
Genus: Callorhinus
Species: C. ursinus
Binomial name: Callorhinus ursinus
Conservation status: Vulnerable – A vulnerable species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as likely to become endangered unless the circumstances that are threatening its survival and reproduction improve.