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Steller's Sea Cow: Difference between revisions
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Evidence suggests Steller's sea cows, specifically ones around the Commander Islands, were the last of a much more spaced out population dispersed across the North Pacific coastal zones. During the recent glacial periods and reduction in sea levels and temperatures, suitable habitat substantially regressed, which fragmented the current population. By the time sea levels stabilized circa 5,000 years ago, the population as a whole had already plummeted. Both of these natural occurrences indicated that even without human influence, the Steller's sea cow would have still been a "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_debt dead clade walking]", or an extinction caused by past events. | Evidence suggests Steller's sea cows, specifically ones around the Commander Islands, were the last of a much more spaced out population dispersed across the North Pacific coastal zones. During the recent glacial periods and reduction in sea levels and temperatures, suitable habitat substantially regressed, which fragmented the current population. By the time sea levels stabilized circa 5,000 years ago, the population as a whole had already plummeted. Both of these natural occurrences indicated that even without human influence, the Steller's sea cow would have still been a "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_debt dead clade walking]", or an extinction caused by past events. | ||
|trivia=[[File:Em - Hydrodamalis gigas model.jpg|thumb| | |trivia=[[File:Em - Hydrodamalis gigas model.jpg|thumb|right|Model in the Natural History Museum of London. Photo by Emőke Dénes.]] | ||
* Today the term Sea Cow is often used to refer to the Manatee or Dugong. | * Today the term Sea Cow is often used to refer to the Manatee or Dugong. | ||