Subject: Manatees compared to cows
Nancy Sadusky (education@savethemanatee.org)
Fri, 5 Jun 1998 21:09:18 +0000
Your question was:
The word manatee means sea cow, I was wondering if the manatee evolve
from some sort of cow or did the cow evolve from the manatee? Also, I
was curious to know, if manatees have four stomachs, like cows, and
regurgitate their food?
My answer is:
"Sea cow" is a common term for manatees and dugongs. This name
likely comes from the fact that manatees are herbivores
(plant-eaters), as are cows.
Manatees have a single-compartment stomach with a large
digestive gland on one side. The stomach empties into an
enlarged duodenum (upper small intestine). For some time,
until proper histological studies were done, it was thought
that the duodenum was a second stomach compartment.*
Manatees are actually hind-gut digesters, like horses, as opposed to
fore-gut digesters like cows. This means that more of the digestive
processes occur further along the intestinal tract. It takes about
seven days for materials to pass along through the manatee's
digestive system.**
*From "Manatees and Dugongs" by John E. Reynolds and Daniel K. Odell
**Florida Department of Environmental Protection's "Manatee Anatomy
Facts."
Sincerely,
Nancy Sadusky
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Nancy Sadusky
Communications Director
Save the Manatee Club
500 N. Maitland Ave.
Maitland, FL 32751
1-800-432-JOIN (5646)
e-mail: smeducation@earthlink.net
http://www.objectlinks.com/manatee
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