Facts about Steller Sea Cow
- 09
A close relative of manatees and dugongs, the Steller sea cow belonged to the order Sirenia and shares a distant common ancestor with elephants.
- 08
Kelp forests around Bering Island served as the primary food source for Steller sea cows, which required approximately 200 pounds of vegetation daily to sustain their massive bodies.
- 07
Georg Wilhelm Steller, the naturalist who first documented these creatures in 1741, never actually saw a living Steller sea cow himself, relying instead on accounts from Russian fur hunters.
- 06
Their front flippers contained four digits with nails, structurally similar to those of land mammals rather than the fin-like appendages of other marine sirenians.
- 05
Unlike modern manatees and dugongs, Steller sea cows lacked functional teeth in adulthood, instead grinding food with hard palatal plates and lower jaw ridges throughout their lives.
- 04
Herbivorous sea cows consumed kelp and seagrass exclusively, spending most daylight hours grazing on shallow Arctic seafloor vegetation to meet their massive caloric needs.
- 03
Steller sea cows possessed a thick, leathery skin up to 1.5 inches thick that lacked blubber, forcing them to remain in cold Arctic waters year-round for thermal regulation.
- 02
Within 27 years of European contact, Steller sea cows were hunted to complete extinction by 1768, making them the fastest large marine mammal to vanish in recorded history.
- 01
Discovered in 1741 off Russia's Bering Island, Steller sea cows reached lengths of 30 feet and weighed up to 10 tons, making them the largest sirenians ever recorded.