Pusa

Pusa
Baikal seal
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Clade: Pinnipedia
Family: Phocidae
Tribe: Phocini
Genus: Pusa
Scopoli, 1771
Type species
Phoca foetica[1]
Species

Pusa caspica
Pusa hispida
Pusa sibirica

Pusa is a genus of the earless seals, within the family Phocidae. The three species of this genus were split from the genus Phoca, and some sources still give Phoca as an acceptable synonym for Pusa.

The three species in this genus are found in Arctic and subarctic regions, as well as around the Caspian Sea. This includes these countries and regions: Russia, Finland, Scandinavia, Britain, Greenland, Canada, the United States, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Japan. Due to changing local environmental conditions, the ringed seals found in the Canadian region has varied patterns of growth. The northern Canadian ringed seals grow slowly to a larger size, while the southern seals grow quickly to a smaller size.

Only the Caspian seal species of Pusa is endangered, while two subspecies of the ringed seal are vulnerable and endangered, Ladoga seal and Saimaa ringed seal respectively.

Taxonomy[edit]

Pusa

ringed seal

Baikal seal

Caspian seal

Cladogram showing relationships among the extant members of genus Pusa, combining several phylogenetic analyses.[2]

Species[edit]

Genus PusaScopoli, 1771 – three species
Common name Scientific name and subspecies Range Size and ecology IUCN status and estimated population
Caspian seal

Pusa caspica
(Gmelin, 1788)
Caspian Sea
Map of range
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 EN 



Ringed seal

Pusa hispida
(Schreber, 1775)

Five subspecies
northern coast of Japan in the Pacific, and throughout the North Atlantic coasts of Greenland and Scandinavia as far south as Newfoundland, and include two freshwater subspecies in northern Europe
Map of range
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 


Baikal seal or nerpa

Pusa sibirica
Gmelin, 1788
Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia
Map of range
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 




References[edit]

  1. ^ Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  2. ^ Berta, A.; Churchill, M. (2012). "Pinniped taxonomy: Review of currently recognized species and subspecies, and evidence used for their description". Mammal Review. 42 (3): 207–34. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2907.2011.00193.x.
  • Ferguson, Steven H.; et al. (2018). "Geographic Variation in Ringed Seal (Pusa Hispida) Growth Rate and Body Size". Canadian Journal of Zoology. 96 (7): 649–659. doi:10.1139/cjz-2017-0213.