Evolutionary relationships of marine and terrestrial caniform carnivores, as inferred from molecular data

    Molecular analysis shows that the three families of marine carnivores ["true seals" (Phocidae), "eared seals" (Otarridae), and the walrus (Odobenidae)] form a monophyletic clade within the terrestrial carnivores. This analysis indicates their closest relatives are the ursid carnivores. The tree is based on a neighbor-joining analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Numbers above the branches indicate fractional distances from the total, and numbers below the brahcnes  indicate the percent occurrence of that cluster in 3,000 bootstrap replicates.