Weekly Wonder

WAIT… WHAT?!

People sometimes call seals the “dogs of the sea” because of their playful, curious behavior. But are dogs and seals actually related?

Take a guess before you scroll.

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YES!

Dogs and seals really are distant evolutionary relatives. Both belong to the mammalian order Carnivora, and seals and other pinnipeds are part of the caniform branch — the “dog-like” carnivores.

That doesn’t mean seals descended from dogs. Rather, seals and modern dogs share a distant common ancestor. Over millions of years, one branch eventually produced animals adapted spectacularly well to life in the ocean.

So the next time you see a seal bouncing through the waves like an overexcited Labrador…

you aren’t entirely imagining the family resemblance.