Editors Assessment:
Due to them being found in the landlocked, isolated habitat of Lake Baikal makes the Baikal Seal (Pusa sibirica) unique among all pinnipeds as the only freshwater seal. This paper presents reference-based assemblies of six newly sequenced Baikal seal individuals, one individual of the ringed seal, as well as the first short-read data of the harbor seal and the Caspian seal . This data aiding the study of the genomic diversity of the Baikal seal and to contribute baseline data to the limited genomic data available for seals. Peer review extended the description of the used tools and parameters in the revised manuscript, and provided some more information on the methods..This newly generated sequencing data hopefully now helps to extend the phylogeny of the Phoca/Pusa group on genome-wide data and can also broaden the view into the genetic structure and diversity of the Baikal seal
This evaluation refers to version 1 of the preprint