Steller's Sea Cow

Also known as Great Northern Sea Cow, Bering Sea Cow

Steller's sea cows were colossal marine herbivores uniquely adapted to frigid subpolar waters, relying on a thick layer of blubber and deeply furrowed bark-like skin to endure icy Bering Sea storms. They lacked functional teeth and hand bones, using bristled keratinous mouth plates and hook-shaped forelimbs to rip massive kelp fronds from shallow rocky seabeds. Highly social and monogamous, family groups fiercely guarded injured herd members, a devoted behavior that tragically accelerated their swift eradication by eighteenth-century seal hunters.