https://www.sealsandsociety.com/about daily 0.75 2025-10-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/7a20e6e2-045a-4476-8c7e-e9aaa186a1be/IMG_6631.jpg Seals and Society: About - Make it stand out Four of the panels installed at the Province Lands Visitor Center on Cape Cod. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/4c3b5759-56dd-43ea-b2f2-a6452b433ea4/panels+-+NBWM.jpeg Seals and Society: About - Make it stand out Opening of Seals & Society Exhibit at the New Bedford Whaling Museum https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/49ac3313-11fc-4b8a-9d62-57c82a88d8d7/1696639773482.jpeg Seals and Society: About - Make it stand out Panels at the entry way of the Seacoast Science Center, Rye NH https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/5fb2a92f-1b0c-43c3-98ea-7cf2faef9bc1/Screen+Shot+2023-06-15+at+1.13.53+PM.png Seals and Society: About Support and Funding for Seals and Society was provided by David P. Wheatland Charitable Trust, the New Bedford Whaling Museum, and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Newport RI. Many researchers, people, and organizations were generous with ideas, information, and images used in this exhibit. We’d like to thank, in particular: Visual Media Contributors Darius Coombs, Mashpee Wampanoag Nation Steve De Neef Uko Gorter International Fund for Animal Welfare, Marine Mammal Rescue and Research Tomas Koeck Milton Levin, MS, PhD., University of Connecticut Sarah Medill, Parks Canada Michael J. Moore, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Christin Murphy, US Naval Undersea Warfare Center Brian Skerry Contributing Culture and Science Advisors Atlantic White Shark Conservancy Kristy Biolsi, St. Francis University, Center for the Study of Pinniped Ecology and Cognition (C-SPEC) Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown Christina Connett-Brophy, Mystic Seaport Museum Monica DeAngelis, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport, RI Robert Di Giovanni, Atlantic Marine Conservation Society Michael Dyer, New Bedford Whaling Museum Peter Forbes, Facilitator, New Learning Journey Jennifer Jackman, Salem State University Elizabeth Josephson, NOAA Northeast FIsheries Science Center Affiliate Jason Mancini, Executive Director, CT Humanities & Co-founder, Akomawt Educational Initiative Kimberly Murray, Research Fisheries Biologist, NOAA Fisheries Northwest Atlantic Seal Research Consortium Robert Rocha, New Beford Whaling Museum Joe Roman, Author of Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World Frederick Wenzel, Fisheries Research Biologist, NOAA Fisheries Images, unless otherwise noted, were taken under NOAA permits No. 16260, LOC 20412, 775-187, 17670, and LOC 14903. https://www.sealsandsociety.com/videos daily 0.75 2021-03-05 https://www.sealsandsociety.com/meet-the-seals daily 0.75 2023-07-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/f6a7bc99-51b0-4437-a6ae-18a3b8011379/Harp+Seal_Bradfield.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/a736088e-f0e4-44eb-acfb-5f385a2fc625/BothSpecies.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/1656861355321-9LEJP2A1S0HQLGWSVN1X/AtSea-Swimming+harbor+seal.jpg Meet The Seals https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/1656861393400-6S7X2GK8Z6QQTRSH2QQU/Fur+seal.jpg Meet The Seals https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/1656861425258-B13UR5IPZN2M5UBIEIZN/walrus-ecb.jpg Meet The Seals https://www.sealsandsociety.com/evolutionorigins daily 0.75 2023-06-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/1593627693390-KUC7354UTUKVHV1B4SMC/Puijila_BW.jpg Evolution and Origins Image: Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/de621247-5088-4ab2-aceb-6a982a0999a8/Sedna-by-Germaine-Arnaktauyok.jpg Evolution and Origins - Make it stand out Sedna, her fingers becoming seals, whales, and porpoises. Her hair tangled as kelp. (Image: Germaine Arnaktauyok, Canadian Museum of History.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/1593626707663-2333WM183GUHQEX3C5OL/Screen+Shot+2020-06-17+at+5.54.51+PM.png Evolution and Origins - Arctic Evolutionary Origins The evolutionary story of seals, sea lions, and walruses (the pinnipeds) takes us back into deep time and north, where the story begins around 25 million years ago. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/1593628332991-JS4I2A6H0HQMQLV7A5RH/Gray+seal.jpg Evolution and Origins - And Then What? How did the radiation of pinnipeds from the Arctic unfold? It took millions of years for seals, sea lions, and walrus to develop into their contemporary species. It looks like the “eared seals” (Otariids) evolved in the North Pacific 11 million years ago and distributed southward from there. There are 15 species today, all in the Pacific. The true seals? There are 19 species of phocids today, and they thrive in many oceans. A fossil from South Carolina dated to the late Oligocene (29 – 23 million years ago) may be the oldest known. Walrus, the strangest and most mysterious of all the pinnipeds, developed last (maybe?). First, these toothy pinnipeds (minus tusks at the time!) were only in the North Pacific, though today walrus are found in both the north Pacific and Atlantic. Scientists are still in debate about the specifics of walrus evolution. There are fossil records of an extinct species of walrus, for example, as far south as Florida. Walrus! In Florida! Seals, sea lions, and walruses have changed in response to climate, predator and human pressures, and other shifts as yet unknown to us. Their stories continue to evolve, and many historic gaps remain. Image: Elizabeth Bradfield https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/1593627601772-UPWTCUXYL0CH9RWI85DX/Puijila_darwini_%28fossil%29.jpg Evolution and Origins - Make it stand out Re-articulation of the ancient, proto-seal. (Image: Kevin Guertin, Ottawa, Canada) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/59aca215-d91f-4618-a414-091886cd5955/seal+clan+and+tattoo+symbols2.jpg Evolution and Origins - Make it stand out Art by Elizabeth James-Perry https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/74ed20b7-78e6-4c26-9f3d-9a19e54329fd/Selkie+Faroese_stamp_Edward+Fuglo+.jpeg Evolution and Origins - Selkies Faroe Islands postage stamp. https://www.sealsandsociety.com/diet daily 0.75 2023-06-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/2dc0fe25-765e-48b1-bd79-eae6dd661d5c/Illustration_from_The_Natural_History_of_British_Fishes_%281802%29_by_Edward_Donovan%2C_digitally_enhanced_by_rawpixel-com_29.jpg Diet Illustration of a sand lance, a common fish in seal’s diets. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/b33f78ee-dfbf-4a22-a52f-2c7934b6f436/otoliths.jpg Diet - Make it stand out These tiny, white things are “otoliths,” the ear bones of fish. Each fish species has a differently shaped otolith, and these bones are hard enough to pass intact through a predator’s digestive tract. So: by finding the otoliths in seal scat, you can see what a seal’s been eating recently. https://www.sealsandsociety.com/relationships daily 0.75 2023-06-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/1592429127411-D6ZEOANEE0G6ORL02ZNE/Hg%2Bpup.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/240cccec-69a1-4234-a12b-dfa8e2a04dea/Copy+of+6-29-17_HG_Pincher_VB_3N_white_pinchers_sideways_arrow_IMG_0342_C1.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/17d5aa63-5716-4166-8f2c-ec5fc898efc2/seal+watchers.jpeg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/d421c428-4dbc-4c59-9d3b-b9364c7435cb/EJP-LW+Seal+Pouch.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/09ca3495-8011-4779-aab6-af7330f1e4f9/news+headline.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e55db9f3861060d9d66f5f5/a7000590-05db-4713-b46d-b65cf3a5f3a4/IMG_0876.jpeg 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