bbc.co.uk navigation

A group of earless seals on the shore

True seals

Earless seals, or true seals, are one of three families to belong to the seal superfamily. Members of the phocidae include the grey seal, common seal and the massive southern elephant seal. With a few exceptions, seals in this family are usually found in polar, sub-polar and temperate waters. The lack of external ears means they have very streamlined bodies.

Scientific name: Phocidae

Rank: Family

Common names:

  • Crawling seals,
  • True seals

Watch video clips from past programmes (1 clip)

In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.

Explore this group

When they lived

Discover the other animals and plants that lived during the following geological time periods.

About

The true seals or earless seals are one of the three main groups of mammals within the seal superfamily, Pinnipedia. All true seals are members of the family Phocidae /ˈfoʊsədiː/. They are sometimes called crawling seals to distinguish them from the fur seals and sea lions of the family Otariidae. Seals live in the oceans of both hemispheres and are mostly confined to polar, subpolar, and temperate climates, with the exception of the more tropical monk seals.

Read more at Wikipedia

This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.

BBC News about True seals

  • Climate changes outlook for seals Warming oceans and melting sea ice may have a major impact on harp seals, the doe-eyed animals that are the prime target for Canada's annual seal hunt.

Video collections

Take a trip through the natural world with our themed collections of video clips from the natural history archive.

  • Attenborough's frozen planet Attenborough's frozen planet

    Frozen Planet is Sir David Attenborough's latest exploration into the remote and isolated polar environments.

  • Baby Animals Baby Animals

    With Ooh's and Ahh's galore this video clip collection celebrates a world of adorable animal babies.

Elsewhere on the BBC

BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.