The main visual difference between manatees and dugongs are the tails. Manatees are also believed to have the ability to see in color. Their small, widely spaced eyes have eyelids that close in a circular manner. They use the lip to gather food and eat, as well as using it for social interactions and communications. In many ways, the upper lip acts like a shortened trunk, somewhat similar to an elephant's. The upper lips of manatees are split and described as prehensile (Odell 2004). One of their main sources of mortality today is collisions with boats and propellers. Today, manatees are now considered endangered and protected. In West African folklore, the manatee was considered sacred and thought to have been once human killing one was taboo and required penance (Cooper 1992). They traditionally have been hunted for their meat and to make various products (war shields, canoes, shoes) and their bones were ground to treat asthma and earache. Manatees are important to the food chains in their aquatic habitats, consuming a wide variety of different aquatic plants and algae and, although the adults have few predators, manatees are consumed by sharks, crocodiles, and orcas. Sirenia is thought to have evolved from four-legged land mammals over 60 million years ago, with the closest living relatives being the Proboscidea (elephants) and Hyracoidea ( hyraxes) (Domning 1994). The sirenians and cetaceans are completely aquatic, while pinnipeds spend considerable time on land, including giving birth and raising their young, and sea otters can mate and raise their young entirely at sea. Sirenians are one of four groups of marine mammals, the others being cetaceans ( whales, dolphins, and porpoises), sea otters, and pinnipeds ( walruses, earless seals, and eared seals). ![]() Manatees, which sometimes are known as sea cows, are part of the order Sirenia along with dugongs. ![]() Manatees are found in both freshwater and marine environments in parts of the Americas and Africa. There is one genus recognized in the family, Trichecus, which includes three extant species. Manatee is the common name for large, herbivorous, fully aquatic marine mammals comprising the family Trichechidae, characterized by a nearly hairless body with paddle-like front flippers, small eyes, no external ear, and absence of hind limbs (although there are vestigial pelvic bones).
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