A FOSSIL of a small, otter-like animal from the Canadian Arctic provides clues to how seals got their flippers.
We know that seals and sea lions, aka pinnipeds, evolved from land animals and are closely related to bears and weasels. But until now few intermediate fossils bridged the gap between these terrestrial ancestors and the sleek, flippered pinnipeds.
The new fossil, uncovered by of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa and her team does just that. Rybczynski’s team found the fossil, dubbed , in freshwater sediments on Devon Island in the Canadian high Arctic. Puijila’s…
