A story about an extincted animal

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   In course of evolution of Earth many species have been extincted.There are many reasons for this extinction.Such as climatic condition,human exploitation,scarcity of food and water ,competition etc.We all know one such animal called Dinosaurs ,which was extincted due to volcanic erruptions as some say.But here I am not talking about dinosaurs , rather I am talking about STELLER'S SEA COW.

  Sea cow is a mammal , which is now extinct, that once inhabited nearshore areas of the Komandor Islands in the Bering Sea.They were first discovered by Arctic explorers.It belonged to the order sirenian ,which is an order of four leg aquatic mammal.The order Sirenia was named after the Sirens of Greek mythology, and sirenians are believed to be the basis for the mermaid myth. Modern sirenians have two front limbs in the form of flippers but no hind limbs; even the pelvis is vestigial, and there are no skeletal remnants of leg or foot bones at all. 

   It was first discovered in 1741 ,by Georg W. Steller, who accompanied Vitus Bering on his voyage of discovery in the North Pacific.It is unfortune to know that no sspeciemen of seacow was preserved.It was very big ,giant creature,with 30 feet long and 22000 pound weight.It was very intersting to know that they did not have teeth,so they used to eat soft foods like kelp and seaweed.



   But we humans never satisfied .The sea cow is an example that the human's greed can extinct a whole species .Like sea cow ,due to human over exploitation many other species were now extincted.The sea cow was a kind animal,but due to its huge body it had more meat which was used for human food.As earlier we came to know that they feed on seaweed ,so they were always near the shore.Due to this reason they were easily available to hunt.Another reason for their eradication is they floated at the surface but had little ability to submerge and thus were easy targets for harpooning by hunters.They were very low in number when they were discovered .In 1741 there were only 2000 seacows were there.This is an example of the vulnerability of the small population .

  


Reference :

www.britannica.com

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