SEA COW

SEA COW

The Steller's sea cow Hydrodamalis gigas is an extinct herbivorous marine mammal. It was the
largest member of the order Sirenia, which includes its closest living relative, the dugong Dugong dugon, and the manatees Trichechus spp. It reached up to 9 metres in length, making it among the largest mammals other than whales to have existed in the holocene epoch. Although the sea cow had formerly been abundant throughout the North Pacific, by 1741, when it was first described by Georg Wilhelm Steller, chief naturalist on an expedition led by explorer Vitus Bering, its range had been limited to a single, isolated population surrounding the uninhabited Commander Islands. Within 27 years of discovery by Europeans, the slow-moving and easily captured Steller's sea cow was hunted to extinction.
The sea cow grew to at least 8 to 9 m 26 to 30 ft in length as an adult, much larger than the manatee or dugong; however, concerning their weight, Steller's work contains two contradictory estimates: 4 and 24.3 metric tons. The true value is estimated to lie between these figures, at around 8 to 10 t. It looked somewhat like a large seal, but had two stout forelimbs and a whale-like fluke.