Abstract
Several aspects of the behavior of fossil sirenians can be inferred from their skeletal remains. Their transition from terrestrial walking to obligate swimming is relatively well documented by their postcranial skeletons. The salinity of their aquatic habitats, as well as their diets, is determinable from stable isotopes in their tooth enamel. Deflection and width of the front parts of their skulls, respectively, reflect where in the water column they fed, and how selective they were in feeding. Specializations of tusks and other teeth also offer hints about diet, intraoral food transport, and mastication. Sizes of the infraorbital and mental foramina may reflect the importance of their prehensile and tactile vibrissae. The three Recent sirenian genera have divergently adapted in radically different ways, especially in feeding adaptations, to environmental changes of the last 10 million years. Fossils shed little light on vision, chemical senses, or touch, apart from the facial vibrissae, but future study of their ear bones could reveal much about the evolution of sirenian hearing.
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Domning, D.P. (2022). What Can We Infer About the Behavior of Extinct Sirenians?. In: Marsh, H. (eds) Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of Sirenia. Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of Marine Mammals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90742-6_1
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