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The dugong (/ ˈ d (j) uː ɡ ɒ ŋ /; Dugong dugon) is a marine mammal.It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees.It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest modern relative, Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas), was hunted to extinction in the 18th century.
Dugongs sift through the seafloor in search of seagrasses. Sirenians are referred to as "sea cows" because their diet consists mainly of seagrass. Dugongs sift through the seafloor in search of seagrasses, using their sense of smell because their eyesight is poor. [47]
Few species were originally considered to feed directly on seagrass leaves (partly because of their low nutritional content), but scientific reviews and improved working methods have shown that seagrass herbivory is an important link in the food chain, feeding hundreds of species, including green turtles, dugongs, manatees, fish, geese, swans ...
A wide variety of seagrass has been found in dugong stomach contents, and evidence exists they will eat algae when seagrass is scarce. [74] West Indian manatees eat up to 60 different species of plants, as well as fish and small invertebrates to a lesser extent. [75]
A fossil reveals how a now-extinct species of dugong was swimming in the sea about 15 million years ago when it was preyed upon by a crocodile and a tiger shark.
The data they collected revealed what is the world’s largest known seagrass ecosystem, an area of up to 92,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles) in the Bahamas.
Halophila ovalis, commonly known as paddle weed, spoon grass or dugong grass, is a seagrass in the family Hydrocharitaceae. It is a small herbaceous plant that naturally occurs in sea beds and other saltwater environments in the Indo-Pacific. It was introduced as isolated populations in Florida, Cuba and Antigua. [2]
Metaxytherium is an extinct genus of dugong that lived from the Oligocene until the end of the Pliocene. Fossil remains have been found in Africa, Europe, North America and South America. Generally marine seagrass specialists, they inhabited the warm and shallow waters of the Paratethys, Mediterranean, Caribbean Sea and Pacific