Pinnipedimorpha is a clade of Arctoidea that is defined to include the last common ancestor of Phoca and Enaliarctos, and all descendants of that ancestor. Scientists still debate on which lineage of arctoid carnivorans are the closest relatives to the pinnipedimorphs, being more closely related to Musteloidea.
Below is an overall phylogeny of the taxa covered in the article followed after a composite tree in Berta et al. (2018)[ and a total-evidence (combined molecular-morphological) dataset in Paterson et al. (2020):]
See also
Further reading
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A. Berta, C. E. Ray, and A. R. Wyss. 1989. Skeleton of the oldest known pinniped, Enaliarctos mealsi. Science 244:60-62