Flipper traces reveal the presence of ancient seals on South Africa's coast

By Charles Helm, Research Associate, African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University

The world’s largest and heaviest living carnivore is not a big cat, a bear or a wolf: it’s the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina). Bulls of this species can be 5 metres long and can weigh up to 3,500kg. The Cape fur seal, meanwhile, can grow to 3.9 metres and weigh up to 360kg. A large African lion, by comparison, weighs 250kg.

So you might think that the ancient ancestors of these and other large…

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