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The manatee has a large, flexible, prehensile upper lip, used to gather food and eat and for social interaction and communication. Manatees have shorter snouts than their fellow sirenians, the dugongs. Manatee adults have no incisor or canine teeth, just a set of cheek teeth, which are not clearly differentiated into molars and premolars.
Amazonian manatees, similar to all living manatee species in the family Trichechidae, have polyphyodont teeth. Their teeth are continuously replaced horizontally from the caudal portion of the jaw to the rostral portion throughout the manatee's life, a unique trait among mammals. Only the closest living relative of order Sirenia, elephants ...
Much like elephants, manatees are polyphyodonts, continuously replacing their teeth from the back of the jaw. Adults lack incisors, canines, and premolars, and instead have eight to ten cheek teeth. Manatees have an unlimited supply of teeth moving in from the back and shedding in the front; these are continuously formed by a dental capsule ...
The West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus), also known as the North American manatee, is a large, aquatic mammal native to warm coastal areas of the Caribbean, from the Eastern United States to northern Brazil. Living alone or in herds, it feeds on underwater plants and uses its whiskers to navigate.
New, permanent teeth grow in the jaws, usually under or just behind the old tooth, from stem cells in the dental lamina. [5] Young animals typically have a full set of teeth when they hatch; there is no tooth change in the egg. Within days, tooth replacement begins, usually in the back of the jaw continuing forward like a wave.
The dugong (/ ˈ d (j) uː ɡ ɒ ŋ /; Dugong dugon) is a marine mammal.It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees.It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest modern relative, Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas), was hunted to extinction in the 18th century.
Trichechus hesperamazonicus is known by two fragmentary mandibles and part of the palate. Compared with other manatees, it has a wide space between the posterior lower tooth row and ascending ramus of dentary, where the buccinator muscle is located, and a wide ascending ramus of the mandible, which covers the posterior end of the tooth row.
The foot of a manatee. Manatees are believed to share common ancestry with elephants. Sirenia is the order of placental mammals which comprises modern "sea cows" (manatees and the Dugong) and their extinct relatives. They are the only extant herbivorous marine mammals and the only group of herbivorous mammals to have become completely aquatic.