Monday, May 10, 2010

How manatees crossed the ocean

Sirenians (manatees and dugongs) exist in widely scattered locations. Dr. Darren Naish asks the logical question of how animals that are basically floating blimps managed to cross oceans (they seem to have originated in South America). The answer is, essentially, that currents and the Amazon river flow helped them to swim thousands of miles: and they must have made the journey because, well, there they are. Their extinct relation, Steller's sea cow, even made it to the Bering Sea.

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