Steller's Sea Cow

Steller's sea cow: see sirenian.

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sea cow

 or Steller's sea cow

Extinct aquatic mammal (Hydrodamalis gigas) that lived around islands in the Bering Sea. It was discovered in 1741 and described by a member of Vitus Bering's expedition. At least 24 ft (7.5 m) long, it had no teeth, a small head, and a broad, horizontal, forked tail fluke; its dark brown skin was sometimes streaked or spotted with white. It browsed on seaweed. Russian sealers hunted it for food and fur; by 1768 the entire population, estimated at about 5,000, had been exterminated. The term also refers to dugongs and manatees.

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Steller’s Sea Cow 

(Hydrodamalis stelleri, or H. gigas), a marine mammal of the order Sirenia. Steller’s sea cow was discovered and described in 1741 by G. Steller, who was a naturalist on the expeditions of V. I. Bering. It was up to 8 m long and weighed up to 3.5 tons. The massive spindle-shaped trunk ended in a horizontal fin. The forelimbs were in the form of flippers; posterior extremities were absent. The black skin was naked, thick, and very coarse. Steller’s sea cows were toothless, but the palate and the edge of the lower jaw were covered with ribbed horny plates. The mammals lived in herds near the Komandorskie Islands in shallow waters and fed on marine algae (sea kale). Hunted for their flesh and fat, Steller’s sea cows were exterminated somewhere around 1765.

REFERENCES

Krasheninnikov, S. Opisanie zemli Kamchatki, vols. 1–2. St. Petersburg, 1755.
Mlekopitaiushchie Sovetskogo Soiuza, vol. 2, part 1. Moscow, 1967.