1:20 Southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina)

I always wanted to make a 1:20 Elephant  Seal.

This animal is colossally large, in particular the southern elephant species, with some exceptionally large males reaching up to 6 m in length and tipping the scales at 4,000 kg.

Making it at 1:20 scale you can compare with other models and highlight how inmense he really is…
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Apart from this, Elephant Seals are really very interesting species. One of the most remarkable facts is how similar the two different species in the two poles are. Being so far it is incredible that they evolved in a quite similar way after millions and millions of years, something that I think it is no normal. I couldn´t find a good explanation for that…

There are other issues that really impress me.   Elephant seals can hold their breath for more than 100 minute. The average depth of their dives is typically about 300 to 600 m, for around 60 minutes for males. The deepest recorded dive of an elephant seal is 2,388 mts by a southern elephant seal (much, much deeper than a nuclear submarine).

Elephant seals have a very large volume of blood, allowing them to hold a large amount of oxygen for use when diving. They have large sinuses in their abdomens to hold blood and can also store oxygen in their muscles with increased myoglobin concentrations in muscle. In addition, they have a larger proportion of oxygen-carrying red blood cells. These adaptations allow elephant seals to dive to such depths and remain underwater for up to two hours.

I am going to make a huge southern elephant seal bull that could be 30 cm larg from nose to tail…

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Here is my first sketch:

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I didn't know much about Elephant seals, interesting that there are two different species, did they evolve as one species then gradually diverge because the populations are so far apart ?

I don´t know and this is what really I wonder…

The existence, for instance, of two so similar elephants subspecies, Indian and African, in two adjacent continents is easy to explain.

But you can´t find neither Penguins in the Artic nor Polar bears in the Antarctica, just because there were no possibility for the ancestors of those animals, already tied to very cold weathers, to cross from the north pole to the south…then, how could the  ancestor of the elephant seals cross so long distance? …few millions years ago, when they surely were already adapted to very cold environments…

No clear for me!

GOING ON...

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This is indeed a very, very strange and interesting creature

I didn't know that much about themn eitrher, - thankyou for your great introduction, - and the model you make looks gorgeous

Are you making a female for him too ? They look so small and feminine compared to the male, even if they are huge also.

Thanks Sussane I am happy you consider this animal interesting.

Now you can see my model ready to be painted...

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And yes, I plan to make the female in due time

Another great model

Polar bears are really recent creatures and very closely related to brown bears that is only present in Northern hemisphere. I don't know how sea elephants diverged or if they resulted from convregent evolution what I doubt.
A very close related ancestor existed already during the Miocene era, probably more adapted to warmer weather once their fossils are known from South Africa. After that period, some important glaciations happened what probably allowed the creature to expand their range to a global extent. As long as weather turned again warmer, much probably forced them slowly to adapte to polar regions and consequently both populations developed indpendently and originated the two species. That's me just thinking, I haven't read it anywhere so it may be non sense.
This page doesn't explain it at all but may give you some light.
By the way, your figure is fabulous!

This is great!

Great work on this Elephant seal!

Mgarat, this guy is just SO beautyful

I can almost see him waddle along and hear him roar at his rivals  

He is perfectly fat, -I saw a film that they only come into "musth" (or whatever it is called by an elephant of the ocean) when they are enormously fat

Roger wrote:

.....
This page doesn't explain it at all but may give you some light.
.....

Great site. Thankyou, Roger

So much detail! I am very surprised by the fins/flippers, look at the nails

Thanks Stecal, Rogerio, Bjarki, Anna, Susanne and Karin!!! Very kind of you!!!

Roger wrote:

Polar bears are really recent creatures and very closely related to brown bears that is only present in Northern hemisphere. I don't know how sea elephants diverged or if they resulted from convergent evolution what I doubt.
A very close related ancestor existed already during the Miocene era, probably more adapted to warmer weather once their fossils are known from South Africa. After that period, some important glaciations happened what probably allowed the creature to expand their range to a global extent. As long as weather turned again warmer, much probably forced them slowly to adapt to polar regions and consequently both populations developed independently and originated the two species. That's me just thinking, I haven't read it anywhere so it may be non sense.
This page doesn't explain it at all but may give you some light.

Interesting page Rogerio, although from its information it is even more mysterious for me the relationship of these two elephant seal species. In fact looking the following maps it is almost clear they can´t cross from one pole to the other...

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And according to this graph, during the last 60 millions of years there was not a glaciation that could give a minimal chance for a cold water animal to travel through the equator:

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So it continues to be enigmatic to me....

It will continue to be enigmatic once it is mere speculation from me.
Though, in my explanation nobody crossed oceans, or anything. In terms of evolution, when we talk about geographic expansion of a certain species, we are not necessarily expecting that a certain individual specimen crossed a huge region. populations, expand, retract or move according with several factors. Weather is one of them, food and available resources is another, predation, etc. It takes often milions of years. We can read that sea elephants ancestors were clearly adapted to warmer weather what allowed them to adapt to a global geographic area. So, sea elephant predecessors were present in both hemispheres. Available resources turned sparse due to climate changes and they moved (gradually) to cooler regions where food was more abundant. Northern populations to Arctic regions and Soutehrn to Antarctic regions. As they (again gradually) needed to turn more adapted to extreme cold, to turn in efficient divers to get their prey, etc., etc. their descendants evolved to what we know today as elephant seals. I believe that at this point, due to similar conditions and evolutionary experiences, they developped a kind of convergent evolution what made them look similar in appearance.

Thanks for the explanation. It could be like you said. In fact there are some incredible examples of convergent evolution. Even so, this case is amazing for me.

Here is the beast!!!!

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Wow!
Shove away Schleich, we have a new beach master!!!

NightLioness wrote:

Wow!
Shove away Schleich, we have a new beach master!!!

Thanks Karin and Susanne!!!

Some comparative pictures:

two Namesakes:

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Two cold comrades separated by the equator:

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Your models are just so...so...so wonderful, charming, alive-looking

Thank you very much Susanne, I really appreciate your support.

I want a line at 1:20 scale with your sculpts. Is there any manufacturer that is not sleeping?
By the way, it seems that the ringed seal is commonly considered the smallest of true seals. Though, a very good size to be made at 1:20 scale. :)

Great work again :)

wow! very nice model! perfect 10!

Fantastic work!