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Trichechus bernhardi |
| Dwarf Manatee | ||||||||||||||
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Not recognized (IUCN 3.1)
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| Trichechus bernhardi Marc van Roosmalen, 2007citation needed |
The Dwarf Manatee (Trichechus bernhardi) is a possible species of manatee that lives in the freshwater habitats of the Amazon, though restricted to one tributary of the Rio Aripuanã. According to Marc van Roosmalen, the scientist who proposes it as a new species, it lives in shallow, fast running water and feeds on different species of aquatic plants from the Amazonian Manatee, which prefers deeper slower moving waters and the plants found there. Based on its tiny range, it has been suggested that the Dwarf Manatee is critically endangered, but at present it is not recognized by the IUCN.
Dwarf Manatees are typically about 130 cm long, and weigh about 60 kg, making them the smallest extant sirenians. It is overall very dark, almost black, with a white patch on the abdomen. It has been suggested that it actually represents an immature Amazonian Manatee, but they are reported to differ in proportions and colour. They are, however, at least very closely related, as mtDNA has failed to reveal any difference between the two. Based on mutation rates in manatees - if the Dwarf Manatee is distinct - this suggests a divergence time of less than 485,000 years. Daryl Domning, a Smithsonian Institute research associate and the world's foremost experts on manatee evolution,1 has stated that the DNA evidence actually proves that these merely are immature Amazonian Manatees.2
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