Chordata · chordates
West Indian manatee
Trichechus manatus
Trichechidae · manateesIUCN: Vulnerable
A slow, gentle grazer of warm coastal waters and springs.
Fun factIts closest living relatives are elephants.
- Waters
- Northwest Atlantic, Tropical Atlantic & Caribbean
- Depth zone
- Coastal shallows & estuaries
- Diet
- Seagrass & aquatic plants
- Size
- Up to 4 m
Classification
Chordata › Mammalia › Sirenia › Trichechidae
- Kingdom Animalia animals
- Many-celled organisms that eat other living things for energy (heterotrophs)
- Cells have no cell walls
- Most can move at some stage of life
- Clade Bilateria bilateral animals
- Body has a left and right side that mirror each other (bilateral symmetry)
- Head end with concentrated nerves; three tissue layers
- Includes about 99% of all living animal species
- Clade Deuterostomia deuterostomes
- In the embryo, the first opening becomes the anus and the mouth forms second
- Includes echinoderms and chordates
- Phylum Chordata chordates
- At some stage of life: a stiffening rod along the back (notochord)
- A hollow nerve cord along the back (dorsal)
- Slits in the throat (pharyngeal slits) and a tail past the anus
- Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
- A skull (cranium) protecting a brain
- Backbone or similar support around the nerve cord
- Includes fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals
- Infraphylum Gnathostomata jawed vertebrates
- Jawed vertebrates: jaws formed from gill arches
- Paired fins or limbs
- Includes all fishes except hagfish and lampreys, plus all tetrapods
- Superclass Osteichthyes bony vertebrates
- Bony vertebrates: skeleton made largely of bone
- Most have a lung or swim bladder
- Includes ray-finned and lobe-finned fishes and all tetrapods
- Clade Sarcopterygii lobe-finned vertebrates
- Lobe-finned: fleshy fins with bones like those of limbs
- Includes coelacanths, lungfishes, and all tetrapods
- Clade Tetrapoda four-limbed vertebrates
- Four limbs with fingers and toes (or descended from animals that had them)
- Breathe air with lungs
- Class Mammalia mammals
- Mammals: hair at some stage of life
- Females nurse their young with milk (mammary glands)
- Three small bones in the middle ear
- Superorder Afrotheria elephants, manatees & kin
- Placental mammals that evolved in Africa: elephants, manatees, aardvarks, and relatives
- Order Sirenia sea cows
- Sea cows: plant-eating marine mammals with paddle flippers and no back legs
- Heavy, dense bones help them stay submerged
- Family Trichechidae manatees
- Manatees: rounded, paddle-shaped tail
- Genus Trichechus
- Species in the same genus are very close relatives and often look alike.
- Species Trichechus manatus West Indian manatee
Closest relatives in the guide
- Dugong Dugong dugon same order
- Antarctic fur seal Arctocephalus gazella same class
- Atlantic spotted dolphin Stenella frontalis same class
- Atlantic white-sided dolphin Lagenorhynchus acutus same class
- Beluga whale Delphinapterus leucas same class
- Blue whale Balaenoptera musculus same class
- Bowhead whale Balaena mysticetus same class
- California sea lion Zalophus californianus same class