The complete mitochondrial genome of Japanese sea lion, Zalophus japonicus (Carnivora: Otariidae) analyzed using the excavated skeletal remains from Ulleungdo, South Korea

The Japanese sea lion, Zalophus japonicus, is an extinct pinniped species, which had inhabited along the coast of the Japanese archipelago and Korean peninsula. Its mitochondrial genome was determined by the assembly of PCR amplicons from the skeletal remains excavated from the Ulleungdo, South Korea. The whole mitogenome was 16,698 bp in length, which encoded 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNAs (tRNA), 2 ribosomal RNAs (rRNA), an origin of light-strand replication (OL), and a control region (D-loop). Unusual start codons were identified in ND2 (ATA), ND3 (ATA), and ND5 (ATC), while COIII, ND3, and ND4 were terminated with an incomplete stop codon (T–/TA-). Phylogenetic analysis showed that Z. japonicus was a sister species to Z. californianus with 98.61% nucleotide sequence identity among 11 pinniped species in the infraorder Pinnipedia, which supported the previous results. The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Z. japonicus would be valuable information for its restoration and the evolutional understandings of pinniped species in the Pacific Ocean.