It is said that there are three types of seals that emerged from the Mediterranean monk seal group; The Mediterranean monk seal, the Caribbean monk seal, and then of course the Hawaiian monk seal. The seals used the process of migration to move through the different seas to evolve into a different species, which gives us our Hawaiian monk seal today. Scientists have thoroughly studied the fossils that are currently unearthed and have come to realize that they have not changed too much over the years. It seems that the Hawaiian monk seal is a "living fossil." In other words, there has been little genetic drift over the ages.

The seals started their evolution journey in eastern North America and took the sea current to Europe, but their has also been thoughts that the original ancestor of the species started in Europe. This is where the Mediterranean monk seal was born. They they followed the equator current to the Caribbean, which gave rise to the Caribbean monk seal. They then took one last trip across the Pacific to Hawaii where the Hawaiian monk seal was born and stays to this day. The Caribbean monk seal is extinct since the 1950s, but there are still a few hundred Mediterranean monk seals left.