Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) is anextinctsirenian described byGeorg Wilhelm Steller in 1741. At that time, it was found only around theCommander Islands in theBering Sea betweenAlaska andRussia; its range extended across the North Pacific during thePleistoceneepoch, and likely contracted to such an extreme degree due to theglacial cycle. It is possible that indigenous populations interacted with the animal before Europeans. Steller first encountered it onVitus Bering'sGreat Northern Expedition when the crew became shipwrecked onBering Island. Much of what is known about its behavior comes from Steller's observations on the island, documented in his posthumous publicationOn the Beasts of the Sea. Within 27 years of its discovery by Europeans, the slow-moving and easily caught mammal was hunted into extinction for its meat, fat, and hide.
Some 18th-century adults would have reached weights of 8–10 t (8.8–11.0 short tons) and lengths up to 9 m (30 ft). It was a member of the familyDugongidae, of which the 3 m (9.8 ft) longdugong (Dugong dugon) is the sole living member. It had a thicker layer ofblubber than other members of the order, an adaptation to the cold waters of its environment. Its tail was forked, like that of whales or dugongs. Lacking true teeth, it had an array of white bristles on its upper lip and twokeratinous plates within its mouth for chewing. It fed mainly onkelp, and communicated with sighs and snorting sounds. Steller believed it was amonogamous andsocial animal living in small family groups andraising its young, similar to modern sirenians.
Steller's sea cows are reported to have grown to 8 to 9 m (26 to 30 ft) long as adults, much larger thanextantsirenians.[6] In 1987, a rather complete skeleton was found on Bering Island measuring 3 m (9.8 ft).[7][8] In 2017, another such skeleton was found on Bering Island measuring 5.2 m (17 ft), and in life probably about 6 m (20 ft).[9]Georg Steller's writings contain two contradictory estimates of weight: 4 and 24.3 t (4.4 and 26.8 short tons). The true value is estimated to fall between these figures, at about 8–10 t (8.8–11.0 short tons).[10] This size made the sea cow one of the largest mammals of theHoloceneepoch, along with baleen whales and some few toothed whales,[11] and was likely an adaptation to reduce itssurface-area to volume ratio and conserve heat.[12]
Unlike other sirenians, Steller's sea cow was positivelybuoyant, meaning that it was unable to submerge completely. It had a very thickouter skin, 2.5 cm (1 in), to prevent injury from sharp rocks and ice and possibly to prevent unsubmerged skin from drying out.[6][13] The sea cow'sblubber was 8–10 cm (3–4 in) thick, another adaptation to the frigid climate of the Bering Sea.[14] Its skin was brownish-black, with white patches on some individuals. It was smooth along its back and rough on its sides, with crater-like depressions most likely caused byparasites. This rough texture led to the animal being nicknamed the "bark animal". Hair on its body was sparse, but the insides of the sea cow'sflippers were covered in bristles.[5] The fore limbs were roughly 67 cm (26 in) long, and the tail fluke was forked.[5]
The sea cow's head was small and short in comparison to its huge body. The animal's upper lip was large and broad, extending so far beyond thelower jaw that the mouth appeared to be located underneath the skull. Unlike other sirenians, Steller's sea cow was toothless and instead had a dense array of interlacing white bristles on its upper lip. The bristles were about 3.8 cm (1.5 in) in length and were used to tearseaweed stalks and hold food.[5] The sea cow also had twokeratinous plates, calledceratodontes, located on itspalate andmandible, used for chewing.[15][16] According to Steller, these plates (or "masticatory pads") were held together byinterdental papillae, a part of thegums, and had many small holes containingnerves andarteries.[5]
As with all sirenians, the sea cow'ssnout pointed downwards, which allowed it to better graspkelp. The sea cow's nostrils were roughly 5 cm (2 in) long and wide. In addition to those within its mouth, the sea cow also had stiff bristles 10–12.7 cm (3.9–5.0 in) long protruding from its muzzle.[12][5] Steller's sea cow had small eyes located halfway between its nostrils and ears with blackirises,livid eyeballs, andcanthi which were not externally visible. The animal had no eyelashes, but like other diving creatures such assea otters, Steller's sea cow had anictitating membrane, which covered its eyes to prevent injury while feeding. The tongue was small and remained in the back of the mouth, unable to reach the masticatory (chewing) pads.[12][5]
The sea cow's spine is believed to have had sevencervical (neck), 17thoracic, threelumbar, and 34 caudal (tail) vertebrae. Its ribs were large, with five of 17 pairs making contact with thesternum; it had noclavicles.[5] As in all sirenians, thescapula of Steller's sea cow was fan-shaped, being larger on theposterior side and narrower towards the neck. The anterior border of the scapula was nearly straight, whereas those of modern sirenians are curved. Like other sirenians, the bones of Steller's sea cow werepachyosteosclerotic, meaning they were both bulky (pachyostotic) and dense (osteosclerotic).[12][17] In all collected skeletons of the sea cow, themanus is missing; sinceDusisiren—thesister taxon ofHydrodamalis—had reducedphalanges (finger bones), Steller's sea cow possibly did not have a manus at all.[18]
The sea cow's heart was 16 kg (35 lb) in weight; its stomach measured 1.8 m (6 ft) long and 1.5 m (5 ft) wide. The full length of itsintestinal tract was about 151 m (500 ft), equaling more than 20 times the animal's length. The sea cow had nogallbladder, but did have a widecommon bile duct. Its anus was 10 cm (0.33 ft) in width, with itsfeces resembling those of horses. The male's penis was 80 cm (2.6 ft) long.[5] Genetic evidence indicatesconvergent evolution with other marine mammals of genes related to metabolic and immune function, includingleptin associated with energyhomeostasis and reproductive regulation.[19]
Whether Steller's sea cow had any naturalpredators is unknown. It may have been hunted bykiller whales andsharks, though its buoyancy may have made it difficult for killer whales to drown, and the rockykelp forests in which the sea cow lived may have deterred sharks. According to Steller, the adults guarded the young from predators.[6]
Steller described anectoparasite on the sea cows that was similar to thewhale louse (Cyamus ovalis), but the parasite remains unidentified due to thehost's extinction and loss of all original specimens collected by Steller.[20] It was first formally described asSirenocyamus rhytinae in 1846 byJohann Friedrich von Brandt, although it has since been placed into the genusCyamus asCyamus rhytinae.[21] It was the only species of cyamidamphipod to be reported inhabiting a sirenian.[22] Steller also identified anendoparasite in the sea cows, which was likely anascarid nematode.[15]
Like other sirenians, Steller's sea cow was an obligateherbivore and spent most of the day feeding, only lifting its head every 4–5 minutes for breathing.[5] Kelp was its main food source, making it analgivore. The sea cow likely fed on several species of kelp, which have been identified asAgarum spp.,Alaria praelonga,Halosaccion glandiforme,Laminaria saccharina,Nereocyctis luetkeana, andThalassiophyllum clathrus. Steller's sea cow only fed directly on the soft parts of the kelp, which caused the tougher stem andholdfast to wash up on the shore in heaps. The sea cow may have also fed onseagrass, but the plant was not common enough to support aviable population and could not have been the sea cow's primary food source. Further, the available seagrasses in the sea cow's range (Phyllospadix spp. andZostera marina) may have grown too deep underwater or been too tough for the animal to consume. Since the sea cow floated, it likely fed oncanopy kelp, as it is believed to have only had access to food no deeper than 1 m (3.3 ft) below the tide. Kelp releases achemical deterrent to protect it from grazing, but canopy kelp releases a lower concentration of the chemical, allowing the sea cow to graze safely.[15][6][23] Steller noted that the sea cow grew thin during the frigid winters, indicating a period offasting due to low kelp growth.[23] Fossils ofPleistoceneAleutian Island sea cow populations were larger than those from the Commander Islands, indicating that the growth of Commander Island sea cows may have beenstunted due to a less favorable habitat and less food than the warmer Aleutian Islands.[12]
1898 illustration of a Steller's sea cow family
Steller described the sea cow as being highly social (gregarious). It lived in small family groups and helped injured members, and was also apparentlymonogamous. Steller's sea cow may have exhibitedparental care, and the young were kept at the front of the herd for protection against predators. Steller reported that as a female was being captured, a group of other sea cows attacked the hunting boat by ramming and rocking it, and after the hunt, her mate followed the boat to shore, even after the captured animal had died. Mating season occurred in early spring andgestation took a little over a year, with calves likely delivered in autumn, as Steller observed a greater number of calves in autumn than at any other time of the year. Since female sea cows had only one set ofmammary glands, they likely had one calf at a time.[5]
The sea cow used its fore limbs for swimming, feeding, walking in shallow water, defending itself, and holding on to its partner during copulation.[5] According to Steller, the fore limbs were also used to anchor the sea cow down to prevent it from being swept away by the strongnearshore waves.[6] While grazing, the sea cow progressed slowly by moving its tail (fluke) from side to side; more rapid movement was achieved by strong vertical beating of the tail. They often slept on their backs after feeding. According to Steller, the sea cow was nearly mute and made only heavy breathing sounds, raspy snorting similar to a horse, and sighs.[5]
Despite their large size, as with many other marine megafauna in the region, Steller's sea cows may have been prey for the localtransient orcas (Orcinus orca); it is likely that they experienced predation, as Steller observed that foraging sea cows with calves would always keep their calves between themselves and the shore, and orcas would have been the most likely candidate for causing this behavior. In addition, earlyindigenous peoples of the North Pacific may have depended on the sea cow for food, and it is possible that this dependency may haveextirpated the sea cow from portions of the North Pacific aside from the Commander Islands. Steller's sea cows may have also had amutualistic (or possibly evenparasitic) relationship with localseabird species; Steller often observed birds perching on the exposed backs of the sea cows, feeding on the parasiticCyamus rhytinae; this unique relationship that disappeared with the sea cows may have been a food source for many birds, and is similar to the recorded interactions betweenoxpeckers (Buphagus) and extant African megafauna.[24]
Steller's sea cow was a member of thegenusHydrodamalis, a group of large sirenians, whose sister taxon wasDusisiren. Like those of Steller's sea cow, the ancestors ofDusisiren lived in tropicalmangroves before adapting to the cold climates of theNorth Pacific.[25]Hydrodamalis andDusisiren are classified together in thesubfamilyHydrodamalinae,[26] which diverged from other sirenians around 4 to 8mya.[27] Steller's sea cow is a member of the familyDugongidae, the sole surviving member of which, and thus Steller's sea cow's closest living relative is thedugong (Dugong dugon).[28]
Steller's sea cow was a direct descendant of theCuesta sea cow (H. cuestae),[6] an extinct tropical sea cow that lived off the coast of western North America, particularly California. The Cuesta sea cow is thought to have become extinct due to the onset of theQuaternary glaciation and the subsequent cooling of the oceans. Many populations died out, but the lineage of Steller's sea cow was able to adapt to the colder temperatures.[29] TheTakikawa sea cow (H. spissa) of Japan is thought of by some researchers to be ataxonomic synonym of the Cuesta sea cow, but based on a comparison ofendocasts, the Takikawa and Steller's sea cows are morederived than the Cuesta sea cow. This has led some to believe that the Takikawa sea cow is its own species.[30] The evolution of the genusHydrodamalis was characterized by increased size, and a loss of teeth andphalanges, as a response to the onset of the Quaternary glaciation.[29][5]
Steller's sea cow was discovered in 1741 by Georg Wilhelm Steller, and was named after him. Steller researched the wildlife ofBering Island while he was shipwrecked there for about a year;[32] the animals on the island includedrelict populations of sea cows, sea otters,Steller sea lions, andnorthern fur seals.[33] As the crew hunted the animals to survive, Steller described them in detail. Steller's account was included in his posthumous publicationDe bestiis marinis, orThe Beasts of the Sea, which was published in 1751 by theRussian Academy of Sciences inSaint Petersburg. Zoologist Eberhard von Zimmermann formallydescribed Steller's sea cow in 1780 asManati gigas. BiologistAnders Jahan Retzius in 1794 put the sea cow in the new genusHydrodamalis, with the specific name ofstelleri, in honor of Steller.[4] In 1811, naturalistJohann Karl Wilhelm Illiger reclassified Steller's sea cow into the genusRytina, which many writers at the time adopted. The nameHydrodamalis gigas, the correctcombinatio nova if a separate genus is recognised, was first used in 1895 byTheodore Sherman Palmer.[5]
Stejneger's 1925 reconstruction of G. W. Steller measuring a sea cow in 1742
For decades after its discovery, no skeletal remains of a Steller's sea cow were known.[13] This may have been due to rising and falling sea levels over the course of the Quaternary period, which could have left many sea cow bones hidden.[12] The first bones of a Steller's sea cow were unearthed in about 1840, over 70 years after it was presumed to have become extinct. The first partial sea cow skull was discovered in 1844 byIlya Voznesensky while on the Commander Islands, and the first skeleton was discovered in 1855 on northern Bering Island. These specimens were sent to Saint Petersburg in 1857, and another nearly complete skeleton arrived in Moscow around 1860. Until recently, all the full skeletons were found during the 19th century, being the most productive period in terms of unearthed skeletal remains, from 1878 to 1883. During this time, 12 of the 22 skeletons having known dates of collection were discovered. Some authors did not believe possible the recovery of further significant skeletal material from the Commander Islands after this period, but a skeleton was found in 1983, and two zoologists collected about 90 bones in 1991.[13] Only two to four skeletons of the sea cow exhibited in various museums of the world originate from a single individual.[34] It is known thatAdolf Erik Nordenskiöld,Benedykt Dybowski, andLeonhard Hess Stejneger unearthed many skeletal remains from different individuals in the late 1800s, from which composite skeletons were assembled. As of 2006, 27 nearly complete skeletons and 62 complete skulls have been found, but most of them are assemblages of bones from two to 16 different individuals.[13]
The Pallas Picture is the only known drawing of Steller's sea cow believed to be from a complete specimen. It was published byPeter Simon Pallas in his 1840 workIcones ad Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica. Pallas did not specify a source; Stejneger suggested it may have been one of the original illustrations produced by Friedrich Plenisner, a member ofVitus Bering's crew as a painter and surveyor who drew a figure of a female sea cow on Steller's request. Most of Plenisner's depictions were lost during transit from Siberia to Saint Petersburg.[35][36]
Another drawing of Steller's sea cow similar to the Pallas Picture appeared on a 1744 map drawn by Sven Waxell and Sofron Chitrow. The picture may have also been based upon a specimen, and was published in 1893 by Pekarski. The map depicted Vitus Bering's route during theGreat Northern Expedition, and featured illustrations of Steller's sea cow and Steller's sea lion in the upper-left corner. The drawing contains some inaccurate features such as the inclusion of eyelids and fingers, leading to doubt that it was drawn from a specimen.[35][36]
Johann Friedrich von Brandt, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences, had the "Ideal Image" drawn in 1846 based upon the Pallas Picture, and then the "Ideal Picture" in 1868 based upon collected skeletons. Two other possible drawings of Steller's sea cow were found in 1891 in Waxell's manuscript diary. There was a map depicting a sea cow, as well as a Steller sea lion and a northern fur seal. The sea cow was depicted with large eyes, a large head, claw-like hands, exaggerated folds on the body, and a tail fluke in perspective lying horizontally rather than vertically. The drawing may have been a distorted depiction of a juvenile, as the figure bears a resemblance to amanatee calf. Another similar image was found byAlexander von Middendorff in 1867 in the library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and is probably a copy of the Tsarskoye Selo Picture.[35][36]
The Pallas Picture: the only surviving drawing of Steller's sea cow byFriedrich Plenisner, and possibly the only one drawn from a complete specimen (1840)
The firstfossils discovered outside the Commander Islands were found ininterglacial Pleistocene deposits inAmchitka,[12] and further fossils dating to the late Pleistocene were found inMonterey Bay, California, andHonshu, Japan. This suggests that the sea cow had a far more extensive range in prehistoric times, but the possibility that these fossils belong to otherHydrodamalis species cannot be excluded.[13][39][40] The southernmost find is aMiddle Pleistocene rib bone from theBōsō Peninsula of Japan.[41] The remains of three individuals were found preserved in theSouth Bight Formation of Amchitka; as late Pleistocene interglacial deposits are rare in the Aleutians, the discovery suggests that sea cows were abundant during that era. According to Steller, the sea cow often resided in the shallow, sandy shorelines and in the mouths of freshwater rivers.[12] Genetic evidence suggests that Steller's sea cow, as well as the modern dugong, suffered apopulation bottleneck (a significant reduction in population) bottoming roughly 400,000 years ago.[19]
Bone fragments and accounts by native Aleut people suggest that sea cows also historically inhabited theNear Islands,[42] possibly with viable populations that were in contact with humans in the westernAleutian Islands prior to Steller's discovery in 1741. A sea cow rib discovered in 1998 onKiska Island wasdated to around 1,000 years old, and is now in the possession of theBurke Museum in Seattle; the dating may be skewed due to the marine reservoir effect, which causes radiocarbon-dated marine specimens to appear several hundred years older than they are. (Marine reservoir effect is caused by the large reserves ofC14 in the ocean, and it is more likely that the animal died between 1710 and 1785.[43] A 2004 study reported that sea cow bones discovered onAdak Island were around 1,700 years old, and sea cow bones discovered onBuldir Island were found to be around 1,600 years old.[44] It is possible that these bones were from cetaceans and were misclassified.[43] Rib bones of a Steller's sea cow have also been found onSt. Lawrence Island, from a specimen that is thought to have lived between 800 and 920CE.[37]
Genetic evidence suggests the Steller's sea cows around the Commander Islands were the last of a much more ubiquitous population dispersed across the North Pacific coastal zones. They had the samegenetic diversity as the last and ratherinbred population ofwoolly mammoths onWrangel Island. During glacial periods and reduction in sea levels and temperatures, suitable habitat substantially regressed, fragmenting the population. By the time sea levels stabilized around 5,000 years ago, the population had already plummeted. Together, these indicate that even without human influence, the Steller's sea cow would have still been adead clade walking, with the vast majority of the population having already gone extinct from natural climatic and sea level shifts, with the tiny remaining population at major risk from a geneticextinction vortex.[19]
Thesea otter is akeystone species and keepssea urchin populations in check. Its depopulation in the Aleutian Islands may have led to the decline ofkelp and subsequently of sea cows.[23]
The presence of Steller's sea cows in the Aleutian Islands may have caused the Aleut people to migrate westward to hunt them. This possibly led to the sea cow's extirpation in that area, assuming it had not already happened yet, but the archaeological evidence is inconclusive.[12][43][44] One factor potentially leading to extinction of Steller's sea cow, specifically off the coast of St. Lawrence Island, was theSiberian Yupik people who have inhabited St. Lawrence island for 2,000 years. They may have hunted the sea cows into extinction, as the natives have a dietary culture heavily dependent uponmarine mammals. The onset of theMedieval Warm Period, which reduced the availability of kelp, may have also been the cause for theirlocal extinction in that area.[37] It has also been argued that the decline of Steller's sea cow may have been an indirect effect of the harvesting of sea otters by the area's aboriginal people. With the otter population reduced, thesea urchin population would have increased, in turn reducing the stock of kelp, its principal food.[23][39] In historic times, though, aboriginal hunting had depleted sea otter populations only in localized areas,[39] and as the sea cow would have been easy prey for aboriginal hunters, accessible populations may have been exterminated with or without simultaneous otter hunting. In any event, the range of the sea cow was limited to coastal areas off uninhabited islands by the time Bering arrived, and the animal was alreadyendangered.[45][11]
When Europeans discovered them, there may have been only 2,000 individuals left.[19] This small population was quickly wiped out byfur traders,seal hunters, and others who followed Vitus Bering's route past its habitat toAlaska.[46] It was also hunted to collect its valuablesubcutaneous fat. The animal was hunted and used by Ivan Krassilnikov in 1754 and Ivan Korovin 1762, but Dimitri Bragin, in 1772, and others later, did not see it. Brandt thus concluded that by 1768, twenty-seven years after it had been discovered by Europeans, the species was extinct.[1][39][47] In 1887, Stejneger estimated that there had been fewer than 1,500 individuals remaining at the time of Steller's discovery, and argued there was already an immediate danger of the sea cow's extinction.[1]
The first attempt to hunt the animal by Steller and the other crew members was unsuccessful due to its strength and thick hide. They had attempted to impale it and haul it to shore using a large hook and heavy cable, but the crew could not pierce its skin. In a second attempt a month later, aharpooner speared an animal, and men on shore hauled it in while others repeatedly stabbed it withbayonets. It was dragged into shallow waters, and the crew waited until the tide receded and it was beached to butcher it.[33] After this, they were hunted with relative ease, the challenge being in hauling the animal back to shore. This bounty inspiredmaritime fur traders to detour to the Commander Islands and restock their food supplies during North Pacific expeditions.[12]
While not akeystone species, Steller's sea cows likely influenced the community composition of thekelp forests they inhabited, and also boosted theirproductivity and resilience to environmental stressors by allowing more light into kelp forests and more kelp to grow, and enhancing therecruitment anddispersal of kelp through their feeding behavior. In the modern day, the flow of nutrients from kelp forests to adjacent ecosystems is regulated by the seasons, with seasonal storms and currents being the primary factor. The Steller's sea cow may have allowed this flow to continue year-round, thus allowing for more productivity in adjacent habitats. The disturbance caused by the Steller's sea cow may have facilitated the dispersal of kelp, most notablyNereocystis species, to other habitats, allowing recruitment andcolonization of new areas, and facilitatinggenetic exchange. Their presence may have also allowedsea otters and largemarine invertebrates to coexist, indicating a commonly-documented decline in marine invertebrate populations driven by sea otters (an example being in populations of theblack leather chiton)[48] may be due to lost ecosystem functions associated with the Steller's sea cow. This indicates that due to the sea cow's extinction, the ecosystem dynamics and resilience of North Pacific kelp forests may have already been compromised well before more well-known modern stressors likeoverharvesting andclimate change.[49][24]
Sea cow sightings have been reported after Brandt's official 1768 date of extinction.Lucien Turner, an Americanethnologist and naturalist, said the natives ofAttu Island reported that the sea cows survived into the 1800s, and were sometimes hunted.[43]
In 1963, the official journal of theAcademy of Sciences of the USSR published an article announcing a possible sighting. The previous year, thewhaling shipBuran had reported a group of large marine mammals grazing on seaweed in shallow water offKamchatka,[50] in theGulf of Anadyr. The crew reported seeing six of these animals ranging from 6 to 8 meters (20 to 26 ft), with trunks and split lips. There have also been alleged sightings by local fishermen in the northernKuril Islands, and around the Kamchatka andChukchi peninsulas.[51][52]
Steller's sea cow was described as being "tasty" by Steller; the meat was said to have a taste similar tocorned beef, though it was tougher, redder, and needed to be cooked longer. The meat was abundant on the animal, and slow to spoil, perhaps due to the high amount of salt in the animal's diet effectivelycuring it. The fat could be used for cooking and as an odorless lamp oil. The crew of the St. Peter drank the fat in cups and Steller described it as having a taste likealmond oil.[53] The thick, sweet milk of female sea cows could be drunk or made intobutter,[5] and the thick, leathery hide could be used to make clothing, such as shoes and belts, and large skin boats sometimes calledbaidarkas orumiaks.[15]
Towards the end of the 19th century, bones and fossils from the extinct animal were valuable and often sold to museums at high prices. Most were collected during this time, limiting trade after 1900.[13] Some are still sold commercially, as the highly densecortical bone is well-suited for making items such as knife handles and decorative carvings.[13] Because the sea cow is extinct, native artisan products made in Alaska from this "mermaid ivory" are legal to sell in the United States and do not fall under the jurisdiction of theMarine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) or theConvention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which restrict the trade of marine mammal products. Although the distribution is legal, the sale of unfossilized bones is generally prohibited and trade in products made of the bones is regulated because some of the material is unlikely to be authentic and probably comes fromarctic cetaceans.[13][54]
Theethnographer Elizabeth Porfirevna Orlova, from theRussian Museum of Ethnography, was working on the Commander Island Aleuts from August to September 1961. Her research includes notes about a game of accuracy, calledkakan ("stones") played with the bones of the Steller's sea cow. Kakan was usually played at home between adults during bad weather, at least during Orlova's fieldwork.[55]
In the storyThe White Seal fromThe Jungle Book byRudyard Kipling, which takes place in the Bering Sea, Kotick the rarewhiteseal consults Sea Cow during his journey to find a new home.[56][57]
Tales of a Sea Cow is a 2012docufiction film by Icelandic-French artistEtienne de France about a fictional 2006 discovery of Steller's sea cows off the coast ofGreenland.[58] The film has been exhibited in art museums and universities in Europe.[59][60]
Steller's sea cows appear in two books of poetry:Nach der Natur (1995) byWinfried Georg Sebald, andSpecies Evanescens (2009) by Russian poetAndrei Bronnikov. Bronnikov's book depicts the events of the Great Northern Expedition through the eyes of Steller;[61] Sebald's book looks at the conflict between man and nature, including the extinction of Steller's sea cow.[62]
The 2023 novelBeasts of the Sea (Elolliset) by Finnish author and literary scholarIida Turpeinen uses Steller's sea cow and its demise as a central theme. It features multiple characters at different times in history that were involved with the animal, beginning from Steller's expedition and telling how the complete skeleton was conserved and ended up in the Helsinki museum of natural history.[63][64]
Scottish poetJohn Glenday published the poem "The Kelp Eaters" in his 2003 volume, Grain, describing the beauty and loving nature of the sea cows and their harpooning by the narrator and his companions. The poem carries the epigraph "From "Journal of a Voyage with Bering 1741-1742" By Georg Wilhelm Steller".[65]
In 2021, thenuclear genome of the species was sequenced from skeletal remains.[19] The reconstructed genome showed that the species was already declining due to low genetic diversity caused by climate change and hunting byPaleolithic humans prior to its discovery by Steller, similar to the final populations ofwoolly mammoths onWrangel Island. A year later, in late 2022, a group of Russian scientists funded by Sergi Bachin began research to potentiallyrevive the species and reintroduce it to the Bering Sea. Arctic Sirenia plans to revive the species throughgenome editing of the dugong, but anartificial womb is necessary to conceive a living sea cow due to the lack of an appropriate living surrogate species.[66]Ben Lamm ofColossal Biosciences has also stated that he and his company want to revive the species after they complete their first four projects (woolly mammoth,dodo,thylacine, andnorthern white rhinoceros) and have an artificial animal womb developed.[67]
^Berta, A.; Sumich, J. L.; Kovacs, K. M. (2015)."Sirenians".Marine Mammals: Evolutionary Biology (3rd ed.). Boston, Massachusetts:Academic Press. p. 105.ISBN978-0-12-397002-2.OCLC953575838.The skeleton of sirenians displays both pachyostosis and osteosclerosis...
^Domning, D. P. (1978).Sirenian evolution in the North Pacific Ocean. Vol. 118. Berkeley, California: University of California Publications in Geological Sciences. pp. 1–176.ISBN978-0-520-09581-6.OCLC895212825.
^Haycox, Stephen W. (2002).Alaska: An American Colony. Seattle, Washington:University of Washington Press. pp. 55, 144.ISBN978-0-295-98249-6.OCLC49225731.Each year, one or more vessels left Okhotsk or Petropavlosk on Kamchatka for hunting trips to the [Aleutian] islands. Typically, the ships would sail to the Commander Islands, where they would spend some time slaughtering and preserving the mat of Steller's rhytina (a sea cow)...
^Jones, Ryan T. (September 2011). "A 'Havock Made among Them': Animals, Empire, and Extinction in the Russian North Pacific, 1741–1810".Environmental History.16 (4):585–609.doi:10.1093/envhis/emr091.JSTOR23049853.
^Salomon, Anne K.; Tanape, Nick M.; Huntington, Henry P. (September 2007). "Serial depletion of marine invertebrates leads to the decline of a strongly interacting grazer".Ecological Applications.17 (6):1752–1770.Bibcode:2007EcoAp..17.1752S.doi:10.1890/06-1369.1.ISSN1051-0761.PMID17913138.
^Berzin, A. A.; Tikhomirov, E. A.; Troinin, V. I. (2007) [1963]."Ischezla li Stellerova korova?" [Was Steller's sea cow exterminated?](PDF).Priroda.52 (8). Translated by Ricker, W. E.:73–75.
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