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Manatees
Manatee fossils found in Florida date back 45 million years. Recent fossil skeletons found in Jamaica show that manatees evolved from a four-legged, plant-eating land animal. Manatees prefer the shallow, slow-moving rivers, estuaries, saltwater bays, canals, springs and coastal areas of Florida, particularly where seagrass beds and other aquatic plants flourish.
The manatee is Florida's state marine mammal. Protected by the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act, manatees are moving slowly on the path to recovery.
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Manatees
(Trichechus manatus) are endangered aquatic mammals found in Florida's
waterways. From its blunt whiskered snout a manatee's body broadens to a
torpedo-shape and then flattens into a paddle shaped tail. Manatees have
two flippers located close to their heads, which aid them with eating
and moving through the water. The manatee shares many of its
characteristics with the elephant, its closest land relative.
As
mammals, manatees surface to breathe air, nurse their young and have
hair (very sparse) on their bodies. The average manatee is ten feet long
and weighs about one thousand pounds. The heaviest manatee that
scientists weighed was 3,600 pounds.