Steller's sea cow facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Steller's sea cow |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Skeleton at the Finnish Museum of Natural History | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| Phylum: | |
| Class: | |
| Order: | |
| Family: |
Dugongidae
|
| Subfamily: |
†Hydrodamalinae
|
| Genus: |
†Hydrodamalis
|
| Binomial name | |
| Hydrodamalis gigas |
|
Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) is an extinct aquatic mammal.
It is a member of the order Sirenia, which today consists of dugongs and manatees. Discovered in 1741, Steller's sea cow weighed about 10 tonnes. It fed on kelp, and lived in shallow waters around the Bering Sea. Hunted relentlessly for their meat, they died out 27 years after their discovery. The reduction in the kelp supply may also have contributed to their extinction.
Images for kids
-
Skeleton at the Finnish Museum of Natural History
-
The skull of a Steller's sea cow
-
Model in the Natural History Museum of London
-
Illustrations of the dentition of Steller's sea cow by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber
-
Stejneger's 1925 reconstruction of Steller measuring a sea cow in 1742
-
1966 Soviet postage stamp depicting Bering's second voyage and the discovery of the Commander Islands
-
Sea otters are keystone species and keep sea urchin populations in check. Its depopulation in the Aleutian Islands may have led to the decline of kelp and subsequently of sea cows.
-
Kotick the white seal talking to sea cows in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1895)
See also
In Spanish: Vaca marina de Steller para niños
