Sea elephant \Sea" el"e*phant\ (Zo["o]l.)
A very large seal ({Macrorhinus proboscideus}) of the
Antarctic seas, much hunted for its oil. It sometimes attains
a length of thirty feet, and is remarkable for the
prolongation of the nose of the adult male into an erectile
elastic proboscis, about a foot in length. Another species of
smaller size ({M. angustirostris}) occurs on the coast of
Lower California, but is now nearly extinct.