KANGIA RINGED SEAL

Tavishi

The most well known seal is the ringed seal: perhaps not by name, but rather by face. The undisputed mascot for all pinnipeds around the world is easily Yuki from Osaka Aquarium. While her name may not ring a bell to you, surely the line of seal plushes modeled after her will:

Naturally, anyone who knows me in person is familiar with Yuki. I've named her likeness after Edward Sapir, like the guy who came up with the Sapir-Whorf theory. Yuki is a proud member of the most widespread arctic pinniped: the ringed seal, or Pusa hispida. Among the ringed seal, various subspecies have been identified. For starters, P. hispida hispida, the Arctic ringed seal, P. hispida lagodensis, the Ladoga ringed seal, and P. hispida saimensis, the Saimaa ringed seal. Both the Ladoga ringed seal and the Saimaa ringed seal are pretty genetically distinct from most ringed seals. However, these labels do not accurately represent ringed seal diversity. On October 19th, 2023, a paper was published by Rosing-Asvid and Löytynoja identifying a new species of seal within the Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland. The fjord itself is called Kangia, and the species is thus called the Kangia ringed seal. The species was thought to not even be a subspecies by most scientific researchers, but the Inuit people within the region had previously identified them as distant, calling them Kangiat. From that, the name Kangia ringed seal arose. The Kangia ringed seal differs morphologically from the general ringed seal species. For starters, rings are more prominent in Kangiat than in other species, and generally larger. Furthermore, the Kangia ringed seal is larger than the general ringed seal species.

The genes which likely experienced selection within the Kangia ringed seal are FMO, Grb10, and ASIP. FMO likely accounts for the ability of Kangiat to survive within a glacial habitat and general osmoregulation. Grb10 may be the reason for the larger size of Kangiat, and ASIP likely accounts for the ringed patterns. We are not super sure about Grb10. Not only are there morphological differences that represent the divergence of Kangiat from the ringed seal, but genomic analyses demonstrate that a speciation event occurred genetically around 240,000 years ago.