Dwarf manatee

The dwarf manatee (Trichechus pygmaeus, or mistakenly Trichechus bernhardi)[2] is a disputed species of manatee allegedly found in the freshwater habitats of the Amazon, though restricted to one tributary of the Aripuanã River. According to Marc van Roosmalen, the scientist who proposed it as a new species, it lives in shallow, fast-running water, and feeds on different species of aquatic plants from the Amazonian manatee, which prefers deeper, slower-moving waters and the plants found there. The dwarf manatee reportedly migrates upriver during the rainy season when the river floods to the headwaters and shallow ponds. Based on its small range, the dwarf manatee is suggested to be considered critically endangered if indeed a separate species, but is not recognized by the IUCN.[3]

Dwarf manatee
CITES Appendix I (CITES)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
(disputed)
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Sirenia
Family: Trichechidae
Genus: Trichechus
Species:
T. pygmaeus
Binomial name
Trichechus pygmaeus

The dwarf manatee is described as typically being about 130 cm (4.3 ft) long and weighing about 60 kg (130 lb), which would make it the smallest extant sirenian. It is supposedly very dark, almost black, with a white patch on the abdomen. It may actually represent an immature Amazonian manatee, but it is reported to differ in proportions and colour. It is, however, at least very closely related, as mtDNA has failed to reveal any difference between the two. Mutation rates in manatees – if the dwarf manatee is distinct – suggests a divergence time of less than 485,000 years. Daryl Domning, a Smithsonian Institution research associate and one of the world's foremost experts on manatee evolution,[4] has stated that the DNA evidence actually proves that these are merely immature Amazonian manatees.[5]

Taxonomy

The original description was submitted for publication to Nature, but it was rejected,[2] and it was eventually published in the Biodiversity Journal in 2015.[6]

References
  1. "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  2. William. (2008). Interview with Marc van Roosmalen. aquaticcommunity.com. Accessed November 09, 2009.
  3. International Union for Conservation of Nature (2008). IUCN Red List. Accessed November 09, 2009.
  4. How Manatees Evolved. manateebrain.org. Accessed 2008-07-27
  5. Trials of a Primatologist. smithsonianmag.com. Accessed 2008-07-27
  6. Marc G.M. van Roosmalen (2015). "Hotspot of new megafauna found in the Central Amazon: the lower Rio Aripuanã Basin" (PDF). Biodiversity Journal. 6 (1): 219–244.


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