Introduction: The evolutionary history of the Sirenia, the order of plant-eating marine mammals that includes the manatee and dugong, has intrigued me since my high-school days nearly twenty-five years ago. While still an undergraduate, I dedicated my research career to understanding their extensive but fragmentary fossil record. I also learned in those days of another kind of sirenian--popularly known as Steller's sea cow--that became extinct more than two centuries ago. This animal was even stranger than its odd living relatives, the manatees and dugongs, and it's strange story matched its peculiar characteristics.

NOTES: Join Dr. Domning on his life-long journey to uncover the secrets of Steller sea cow evolution and how he and other paleontologists found the "missing link" in its history.