List of semiaquatic tetrapods

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Restoration of Ichthyostega, an early tetrapod from the Devonian
Marine otter of the west coast of South America
Hawaiian monk seal, off Kaʻula Island

This is a list of tetrapods that are semiaquatic; that is, while being at least partly terrestrial, they spend part of their life cycle or a significant fraction of their time in water as part of their normal behavior, and/or obtain a significant fraction of their food from an aquatic habitat. The very earliest tetrapods, such as Ichthyostega, were semiaquatic, having evolved from amphibious lobe-finned fish.

Some marine mammals, such as the marine otter, the polar bear and pinnipeds, are semiaquatic, while others, such as the sea otter, cetaceans and sirenians, are fully aquatic. The only fully aquatic nonmarine mammals are several manatees (the Amazonian manatee and some populations of African manatee) and certain small cetaceans (river dolphins, the tucuxi, and some populations of Irrawaddy dolphin and finless porpoise). No bird species is fully aquatic, as all must lay and incubate their amniotic eggs, as well as begin raising their young, on land or ice. Similarly among marine reptiles, sea turtles are almost fully aquatic, but must come ashore to lay eggs. Marine iguanas and partly marine crocodiles (such as the saltwater crocodile and the American crocodile) are all semiaquatic. Most sea snakes are ovoviviparous (live-bearing) and fully aquatic (the exceptions being the oviparous, semiaquatic sea kraits). A few freshwater snakes are also ovoviviparous and fully aquatic (e.g., Erpeton tentaculatum and Acrochordidae), but the majority are semiaquatic. Most amphibians have an aquatic larval stage and are at least semiaquatic for that reason, but there are many exceptions to this generalization.

The aquatic component of a semiaquatic species' lifestyle may be either obligatory or facultative to varying degrees (examples of the latter are the Arctic fox, jaguar and green iguana).

Note: dagger symbols, "†", have been used to indicate a listed taxon is extinct.

Mammals[]

All extant fully aquatic mammals except the sea otter are found in two clades of exclusively aquatic species, Cetacea and Sirenia; the extinct desmostylians are also thought to have been fully aquatic (these groups are thought to have become fully aquatic about 45, 40 and 30 Ma ago, respectively). In contrast, semiaquatic mammals are widely distributed throughout the class. However, extant semiaquatic swimming marine mammals are restricted to Carnivora (among which, pinnipeds apparently appeared about 20 Ma ago). Semiaquatic (carnivorous) rodents have been noted as having larger than normal brains for their size, possibly as a consequence of using their vibrissae for acoustic detection of prey.[1][2]

Platypus, a semiaquatic monotreme, Tasmania
Asian elephant using its trunk as a snorkel,[3] India
  • Monotremes
    • Platypus
  • Marsupials
  • Tenrecs
  • †Ancestral sirenians - fossils are known of transitional semiaquatic sirenians, such as the 50 Ma old Pezosiren, which was a hippo-like quadruped[4]
  • Proboscideans
  • Sloths
    • †Thalassocnus - this marine genus of Pacific coastal South America arose about 7 Ma ago, and its most recent species may have been fully aquatic
  • Primates
    • Allen's swamp monkey
    • Crab-eating macaque - feeds opportunistically, but some populations dive for crabs in mangrove swamps
    • Proboscis monkey - inhabits mangrove, riparian and swamp forest and has webbed digits[8]
    • Humans - some cultures have practiced marine freediving for subsistence for over a thousand years; in the case of the Sama-Bajau of Maritime Southeast Asia, evidence suggests that genetic adaptations facilitate this lifestyle[9][10][11]
North American beaver, Virginia
Invasive coypu, Europe
Muskrat, Ontario
Jaguar, in the Pantanal
Indian rhinoceros, India
Male waterbuck, Kenya
Female moose, Wyoming
Hippopotamus underwater
  • Carnivorans - while semiaquatic mustelids are widespread, semiaquatic felids are known primarily from South and Southeast Asia, while semiaquatic canids are best known from the Neotropics
  • Perissodactyls
    • Rhinocerotidae - rhinos
      • Indian rhinoceros - primarily terrestrial
      • Javan rhinoceros - primarily terrestrial
      • Sumatran rhinoceros - primarily terrestrial
    • Tapiridae - tapirs
  • Artiodactyls
White-tailed eagle, Norway
Emperor penguins, Antarctica
Brown pelican, Florida
James's flamingos, Bolivia
Male wood duck, Quebec

Birds[]

The great majority of semiaquatic birds are found within three clades whose members are mostly semiaquatic: Aequorlitornithes, Anseriformes and Gruiformes, thought to be about 64, 47 and 41 Ma old, respectively.[27][note 2]

Nonavian dinosaurs[]

Hesperornis restoration
Spinosaurus restoration

Only a few nonavian dinosaurs are thought to have been semiaquatic. While the Mesozoic had many types of marine reptiles, the combination of being oviparous and endothermic seems to have prevented the evolution of fully aquatic dinosaurs, as in birds.

  • Theropoda
    • Paraves
    • †Megalosauria
      • †Spinosauridae[28] - thought to be partially piscivorous; the group had crocodile-like skulls, paddle-like tails[29] and includes some of the largest known carnivorous dinosaurs. The preference for a semiaquatic lifestyle probably varied by species.
  • †Ornithischia
    • †Ornithopoda
      • †Hadrosauriformes
        • †Lurdusaurus - an unusually heavy-bodied and short-limbed iguanodont conjectured to have been similar in lifestyle to the modern hippopotamus
    • †Ceratopsia

Pterosaurs[]

Eudimorphodon restoration
Pterodaustro restoration, showing its bristle-like modified teeth, likely used for filter feeding as in flamingos

A number of types of pterosaurs are thought to have been piscivores, and a few are suspected of being molluscivores.

Other reptiles[]

Nile crocodile swimming sequence
Marine iguana, Galápagos Islands
Blue-lipped sea krait, Java; note paddle-like tail
Chicken turtle, Florida

Semiaquatic forms are widely distributed among extant and extinct reptiles, and extinct semiaquatic or fully aquatic marine forms were once ecologically prominent.

Gilled aquatic larval eastern newt
Strikingly red eft on moss-covered ground
Green newt with red spots under water
North American eastern newt as a gilled aquatic larva, aposematic terrestrial juvenile ("red eft") and aquatic adult

Amphibians[]

Amphibians differ from other semiaquatic tetrapods in that their semiaquatic lifestyle is ancestral, rather than being the result of a secondary evolutionary trend from a terrestrial state back towards an aquatic environment. Thus, they are the only tetrapods to possess gills. All extant amphibians that are semiaquatic or fully aquatic inhabit freshwater habitats, with the exception of the crab-eating frog, which also exploits brackish habitats.

Most amphibians have an aquatic larval stage and thus are at least semiaquatic by virtue of this fact. Many adult amphibians are also semiaquatic (while others are fully aquatic or terrestrial). However, some amphibians lack an aquatic larval stage. Some frogs, such as most leiopelmatids, most ranixalids, some leptodactylids, some myobatrachids, Darwin's frog and the Seychelles frog, have nonaquatic tadpoles. Some caecilians, many frogs such as saddleback toads, most sooglossids and the greenhouse frog,[32] and most plethodontid salamanders lay eggs on land in which the larvae develop into adult form before they hatch. The alpine salamander[33] and African live-bearing toads (Nectophrynoides and Nimbaphrynoides)[34] are ovoviviparous and give birth on land. Additionally, about 75% of caecilians are viviparous.

  • †Temnospondyls - an early group of amphibians, reaching sizes up to those of crocodiles, whose adult stage was variously fully aquatic, semiaquatic or almost entirely terrestrial. Among the aquatic forms, the Triassic trematosaurids adapted to a marine lifestyle.
  • Most anurans (frogs and toads), but not the fully aquatic pipids, or fully aquatic members of other families such as Telmatobiidae
  • Some caecilians, such as ichthyophiids, rhinatrematids, Chthonerpeton and Nectocaecilia, but not including other fully aquatic typhlonectids[35]
  • Most non-plethodontid salamanders, but not including the fully aquatic amphiumids, cryptobranchids, proteids, sirenids and various neotenic species in other families, such as Ambystoma mexicanum

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Elephants have a system of cracks in their skin which retains water and mud for purposes of thermoregulation and protection from insect parasites and UV radiation. This system is less developed in Asian elephants than in African bush elephants; the former generally live in more mesic habitats.[5]
  2. ^ These dates are without calibration based on the putative late Cretaceous fossil crown avian Vegavis; its inclusion would push back the date for Anseriformes to ~69 Ma.
  3. ^ Although all extant crocodilians are semiaquatic, some recently extinct mekosuchine genera, Mekosuchus and Quinkana, were mostly or entirely terrestrial.

References[]

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