When was the stellers sea cow discovered

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Download references. We want to thank Anna Tikhonova for her valuable comments and English proofreading of this manuscript. We are also grateful to Ekaterina Khritonenkova for her artistic talent.

We want to thank Prof. Jorge Galindo-Villegas for his valuable comments. This study was completed within the framework of the Federal themes of the Zoological Institute no. This work was partially carried out in the Kurchatov Center for Genome Research and supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russian Federation, grant The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Fedor S. Sharko, Eugenia S. Boulygina, Svetlana V. Tsygankova, Natalia V. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. Conceptualization: F. The sea cows were first described by the German naturalist Georg Steller in the 18th century. Steller was part of an expedition organized led by the Danish explorer Vitus Bering. Financed by the Imperial Russian government, its mission was to chart the waters between Siberia and North America, and find a workable route between the two if possible.

The expedition set sail from Kamchatka in June of A few weeks later, they had reached Alaska. Bering allowed Steller a single day to search for new species. In November, the St. Peter ran aground on an uninhabited island. Many of members of the expedition thought that it was attached to the Siberian mainland and that they would eventually be able to walk to safety, but they were soon proven wrong.

A short time after reaching land, the ship broke apart in a storm, and the captain died of scurvy. Steller, who knew how to combat the Vitamin C—deficiency by foraging for herbs, was one of the few crew members still in good health.

Steller quickly realized that the landmass they were on was an island, and one that likely had never been visited by human beings before. Everywhere he went, he was followed by foxes, which showed no fear but eagerly stole any implements or food they could grab in their jaws. One day, walking along the beach searching for firewood, he saw a huge, black shape moving slowly about in the shallows like an overturned boat.

This was the sea cow, seen by the human eyes for the first time in thousands of years. Steller was shocked to realize that this creature was a type of manatee, thousands of miles from its nearest relatives in the tropics. Studying an Indian Ocean paradise is helping to reveal which animals living on low-lying islands are at risk from rising temperatures.

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Skip to content. Read later. You don't have any saved articles. By Josh Davis. Steller's sea cows were extraordinary creatures. Fashion victim It was Europeans' insatiable desire for beautiful fur hats and coats that led to Steller's sea cow becoming an incidental victim of the international fur trade.

The perfect storm It was on one of these Russian expeditions, captained by Vitus Bering - who would eventually give this stretch of water his name - that German zoologist Georg Wilhelm Steller first came across the marine mammals.

Learning from extinction The speed at which the mammals were driven to extinction suggests that, despite what fur traders may have thought at the time, the sea cows were probably never that numerous to begin with. The sea cows had become incredibly specialised to their sub-Arctic environment.

This all means they were a highly restricted species and likely only had a small population. Steller's sea cow facts Type of animal: mammal Family: Dugongidae Diet: algivore Habitat: shallow coastal waters around sub-Arctic Pacific islands Status: Extinct Learning from extinction The cut marks on this vertebra are a poignant reminder of the sea cow's demise.

However the speed at which the mammals were driven to extinction suggests that Steller's sea cows were probably never that numerous to begin with. The fur traders probably never understood that the sea cow could be hunted out of existence, but it marks an important point in humanity's relationship with extinction. For more information and to book tickets to the exhibition, visit the Museum's website. The extinction of Steller's sea cow Steller's sea cow is the first sea mammal in modern times to be made extinct by human ignorance and greed.

Steller's sea cow The Natural History Museum.