The five species in the genus Enaliarctos have been recovered from late Oligocene and early Miocene (ca.

Unlike modern sea lions, it had a set of slicing carnassials; the presence of slicing teeth (rather than purely piercing teeth as in modern fish-eating pinnipeds) suggests that Enaliarctos needed to return to shore with prey items in order to masticate and ingest them.

Still, Enaliarctos had some sea lion-like characteristics, such as large eyes, sensitive whiskers, and a specialized inner ear for hearing underwater.

It existed between 13 and 20 million years ago, during the Hemingfordian age of the Miocene epoch.

It was named for renowned fossil collector Douglas Emlong in 1991 by paleontologist Annalisa Berta.