Sea lions are just one of the many species of seals. Seals (along with walruses) are classified as pinnipeds (in Latin this means “with fins”). The extremities in seals, as follows from this name, are fins; one pair of front and one pair of rear.
Seals are divided into two groups – real seals, which have only auditory holes, but no ear shells, and eared seals, named so because they have small ears. The group of these seals includes a gray seal, a harp seal and a huge sea elephant, whose length can reach 6.5 m, and weight 3.5 tons. Sea lions and fur seals belong to eared seals.
Between sea lions and their uncorrelated relatives, except for the difference in the ears, there are other differences. In sea lions, fins are longer than for insect seals. Fins are like wings and they do not have wool, while seals are covered with fur on seals.
In sea lions, the rear fins bend forward, so that the animals on the shore lean against the ground with all their fins. In real seals, the rear fins do not bend forward, therefore, moving on the ground, they sort by the front fins and glide on the belly like caterpillars.
