Otarioidea is a superfamily of pinnipeds that includes the families Odobenidae, Otariidae and their stem-relatives.[1][2] In the past when the pinnipeds were considered to be a diphyletic group of marine mammals, a few points of cranial and dental morphology suggested that the otarioids originated from a line of bears.[3] One extinct family, Enaliarctidae, was postulated to be otarioids that were a transitional clade between Hemicyoninae (an extinct subfamily of dog-like bears) and Otariidae.[3] Recent comprehensive studies have, however, since the 1990s found pinnipeds to be a monophyletic clade of aquatic arctoids.[1] There are a few authorities that place desmatophocids and odobenids as sister taxa to Phocidae in the clade Phocomorpha based on a few minor physiological features.[4]
^ abMitchell, E. & Tedford, R. H. (1973). "The Enaliarctinae: a new group of extinct aquatic Carnivora and a consideration of the origin of the Otariidae". Bulletin of the AMNH. 151 (3). hdl:2246/1178.
^McKenna, Malcolm C., and Susan K. Bell (1997). Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. New York: Columbia University Press. 631 pp. ISBN0-231-11013-8
