Pusa
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.
| Pusa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Baikal seal | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Clade: | Pinnipediformes |
| Clade: | Pinnipedia |
| Family: | Phocidae |
| Tribe: | Phocini |
| Genus: | Pusa Scopoli, 1771 |
| Species | |
|
Pusa caspica | |
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.
Species
| Image | Scientific name | Common Name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pusa caspica – (Gmelin, 1788) | Caspian seal | Caspian Sea | |
 | Pusa hispida – (Schreber, 1775) | Ringed seal | 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 |
 | Pusa sibirica – Gmelin, 1788 | Baikal seal or nerpa | Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia |
Taxonomy
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| Cladogram showing relationships among the extant members of genus Pusa, combining several phylogenetic analyses.[1] |
References
- 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.
