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Elephant seal
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<p>Elephant seals or sea elephants are very large, oceangoing <a href="/facts/Earless_seal/7fFosRas">earless seals</a> in the <a href="/facts/Genus/m8EFjSms">genus</a> <i>Mirounga</i>. Both species, the <a href="/facts/Northern_elephant_seal/C8kY9wno">northern elephant seal</a> (<i>M. angustirostris</i>) and the <a href="/facts/Southern_elephant_seal/dehvKReX">southern elephant seal</a> (<i>M. leonina</i>), were hunted to the brink of extinction for lamp oil by the end of the 19th century, but their numbers have since recovered. They can weigh up to 4,000 kilograms (8,800 lb). Despite their name, elephant seals are not closely related to <a href="/facts/Elephant/6prrEFFK">elephants</a>, and the large <a href="/facts/Proboscis/Ym7nscSW">proboscis</a> or <a href="/facts/Elephant_trunk/7DqNv1Cq">trunk</a> that males of the species possess is an example of <a href="/facts/Convergent_evolution/dd0L8z4R">convergent evolution</a>. </p><p>The northern elephant seal, somewhat smaller than its southern relative, ranges over the <a href="/facts/Pacific/bdxgXRVM">Pacific</a> coast of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The most northerly breeding location on the Pacific Coast is at <a href="/facts/Race_Rocks_Marine_Protected_Area/VytDf0kc">Race Rocks Marine Protected Area</a>, at the southern tip of <a href="/facts/Vancouver_Island/p2zvIBpr">Vancouver Island</a> in the <a href="/facts/Strait_of_Juan_de_Fuca/fqw1qYfS">Strait of Juan de Fuca</a>. The southern elephant seal is found in the <a href="/facts/Southern_Hemisphere/QfJ4z9L5">Southern Hemisphere</a> on islands such as <a href="/facts/South_Georgia/vFFDtXB5">South Georgia</a> and <a href="/facts/Macquarie_Island/S6fU4py1">Macquarie Island</a>, and on the coasts of New Zealand, Tasmania, South Africa, and Argentina in the <a href="/facts/Peninsula_Vald%25C3%25A9s/etAvntGG">Peninsula Valdés</a>. In southern Chile, there is a small colony of 120 animals at Jackson Bay (<i>Bahía Jackson</i>) in <a href="/facts/Admiralty_Sound_(Tierra_del_Fuego)/sTzr1458">Admiralty Sound</a> (<i>Seno Almirantazgo</i>) on the southern coast of <a href="/facts/Isla_Grande_de_Tierra_del_Fuego/vzUvoQaD">Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego</a>. </p><p>The oldest known unambiguous elephant seal fossils are fragmentary fossils of a member of the tribe Miroungini described from the late <a href="/facts/Pliocene/MjcIVQ86">Pliocene</a> Petane Formation of New Zealand. Teeth originally identified as representing an unnamed species of <i>Mirounga</i> have been found in South Africa, and dated to the <a href="/facts/Miocene/cBRRzq4g">Miocene</a> epoch; however, Boessenecker and Churchill (2016) considered these teeth almost certainly to be misidentified <a href="/facts/Toothed_whale/Vbw2nUcm">toothed whale</a> (odontocete) teeth. The elephant seals evolved in the Pacific Ocean during the Pliocene period. </p><p>Elephant seals breed annually and are seemingly habitual to colonies that have established breeding areas. </p>