Family Odobenidae Allen, 1880 . U.S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Territ, 12:ix, 5.

COMMENTS: Trichecidae Gray, 1821 and Rosmaridae Gill, 1866 are invalid (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1959). Considered as a subfamily of Otariidae by Mitchell and Tedford (1973), Tedford (1976), Hall (1981), Berta and Deméré (1986), Barnes (1989), and Wozencraft (1989a, b); however, Wyss (1987) and Berta (1991) contended that this would make the otariids paraphyletic.