Missing link found for scuba divers' friend the seal

Scuba diving with seals has to be among the best marine life interactions we could hope for.

On a trip to the Farne Islands, off the east coast of England, last year we had some amazing moments in their playground as the inquisitive mammals nipped, nibbled, scrutinized and played with us, zipping around like undersea missiles and then displaying breathtaking underwater acrobatics.

Now a scientist's exciting discovery in Canada's High Arctic has yielded the 24 to 20 million-year-old fossil skeleton of a previously unknown mammal, named Puijila darwini, providing a glimpse into the origins of the species.

The Canadian Museum of Nature said the breakthrough sheds new light on the early evolution of pinnipeds (the group that includes seals, sea lions and walruses).

Dr Natalia Rybczynski said: "The land-to-sea transition in pinnipeds has been difficult to study because the fossil evidence has been weak and contentious.

"Puijila is important because it provides a first glimpse into the earliest stages of this important evolutionary transition."

The fossil was found in the summer of 2007 during a fieldwork expedition on Devon Island, Nunavut, in a meteor impact crater.

The new animal has a body resembling that of an otter, but a skull that is more closely related to seals and backs up the theory of evolution. Charles Darwin forecast the transition from land to sea via fresh water in his seminal work On the Origin of Species, published 150 years ago this year.

A "walking seal", Puijila had legs like a terrestrial mammal, but the feet were webbed and adapted for swimming. A website has been set up detailing the discovery and the importance of the breakthrough.