The evolution of seals (family Phocidae) in the southern oceans: New fossil evidence from Australasia

This thesis investigated the evolution of true seals, by describing monachine fossils from Australasia. Some of these fossils are monk seals, a monachine group only known from the Northern Hemisphere today. Evolutionary analyses revealed that the monachines evolved in the Southern Hemisphere, and not the north as previously assumed. The small size of ancient true seals was not an adaptation to warm environments. Therefore sea level changes, rather than temperature, resulted in the extinction of ancient monachines in the past. The true seals from Australasia have consequently rewritten everything we thought we knew about true seal evolution.