We are not sure what the bigger story here is: the discovery of a new species of tiny adorable river manatee or the fact that this happened in July and we just learned about it last week! Anyway, these critters were discovered by a pioneering Amazonian biologist by the name of Marc van Roosmalen and covered by Darren Naish of Tetrapod Zoology a few months back. Tetrapod is kind of the better researched, actually informative, articulate and all around nerdier version of Zooillogix.
As the story goes, Marc came across the skull of a dwarf manatee and, suspecting it was a new species, searched for it for two years before finding a living specimen. Upon locating a couple, he fenced in a portion of the river and studied them in their natural habitat for four months. Like its saltwater brethren, the dwarf river manatee lives mostly off aquatic plants but hopes someday to land a lucrative career as a pet in Japan. Much more info can be found on Marc's site.
Ungainly out of the water, the dwarf river manatee is pretty much ungainly in the water as well
StarKist: Pig of the Sea ?
Life Science
Comments
'all around nerdier'. Hmm, thanks. True though.
Posted by: Darren Naish | November 15, 2007 10:50 AM
If it's any consolation, this is the first I heard of it too. Pretty interesting, I wonder what else is out there.
Posted by: Homie Bear | November 15, 2007 1:20 PM
Wow. Cool. I always find it amazing when new mammals are discovered.
Posted by: ScienceWoman | November 15, 2007 3:24 PM
I can't believe I've not heard of this either! I've been reading Tetzoo too... WEIRD.
LOL - I really hope for this species sake that they don't catch on in Japan. You could just see it though, couldn't you?
Posted by: arachnophile | November 15, 2007 10:25 PM
I give the Chinese about two weeks to discover the incredible, magical, aphrodisiac powers from dried, ground pygmy manatee testicles. These things are f-ed.
Posted by: Benny | November 16, 2007 12:06 PM
ha!
Posted by: Andrew | November 16, 2007 12:11 PM
aww!
forget Japan, I'm hoping that mini-manatees catch on in the US! But I really wouldn't want to deplete their species even more than it already is, they're too adorable to be extinct.
Posted by: Katie | November 19, 2007 11:09 AM
Ugh, I hope it doesn't catch on it the US, for it's own sake. We have enough problems with morons backyard-breeding dogs and keeping them in awful conditions, I'd hate to see what kind of horrible conditions could be cooked up by somebody with a lot of warped creativity and no understanding of habitat. There'd be five of these cuties in somebody's backyard kiddie pool in no time.
Posted by: Jenbug | November 21, 2007 9:37 AM
Yeah there is a dvd out about this guy and his search for the pygmy manatee. It is real interesting. It is called the Species Hunter
Posted by: Aron | April 6, 2008 11:56 PM