Japanese Sealion

Open encyclopedia reference

The Japanese sea lion (Zalophus japonicus) (Japanese: ニホンアシカ, romanized: Nihon ashika, Korean: 강치, 바다사자) was an aquatic mammal that became extinct in the 1970s. It was considered to be a subspecies of the related California sea lion (Z. californianus) until 2003. They inhabited the western North Pacific and its marginal seas including the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan, especially around the coastal areas of the Japanese archipelago and the Korean Peninsula. They generally bred on sandy beaches which were open and flat, but sometimes in rocky areas. They were hunted commercially in the 1900s, leading to their extinction.

Wikipedia contributors, Japanese sea lion; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T05:17:57.085043+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Zalophus japonicus (Peters, 1866)

Name authority

(Peters, 1866)

Common name

Japanese Sealion

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Carnivora

Family

Otariidae

Genus

Zalophus

Extinction status

Recorded extinct

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
11. orderCarnivora Bowdich, 1821
12. suborderCaniformia Kretzoi, 1938
13. familyOtariidae Gray, 1825
14. genusZalophus Gill, 1866
15. speciesZalophus japonicus (Peters, 1866)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Zalophus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 14 records assigned to Otariidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=622013 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:5CV56. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.