Elephant seals or sea elephants are very large, oceangoing earless seals in the genus Mirounga. Both species, the northern elephant seal and the southern elephant seal, were hunted to the brink of extinction for lamp oil by the end of the 19th century, but their numbers have since recovered. They can weigh up to 4,000 kilograms (8,800 lb). Despite their name, elephant seals are not closely related to elephants, and the large proboscis or trunk that males of the species possess is an example of convergent evolution.