Order Sirenia

Manatees and allies

The Sirenia are large, robust, torpedo-shaped mammals adapted to an aquatic habitat; they live in bays and coastal waters in tropical regions of the world. The front limbs are developed into paddles; the hind limbs are absent externally; the tail is expanded into a rounded, horizontal fluke; muzzle truncate; skin naked except for stiff bristles on the muzzle; nostrils separate and valvular; eyes and mouth small; bones dense and heavy; two pectoral mammary glands; and testes abdominal. Sirenians are the only marine mammals that feed exclusively on plants.

Family Trichechidae

Manatees

This family includes three genera and five species, one of which, the West Indian Manatee, occupies the coastal waters and some connecting rivers from Virginia southward along the Atlantic coast, around the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea to eastern Brazil, the Orinoco basin, and the Greater and Lesser Antilles. This species inhabits shallow coastal waters such as bays, estuaries, lagoons, and rivers, utilizing both saltwater and freshwater, although it may prefer freshwater.

 

From The Mammals of Texas, Seventh Edition by David J. Schmidly and Robert D. Bradley, copyright © 1994, 2004, 2016.  Courtesy of the University of Texas Press.