Cuesta sea cow
| Cuesta sea cow Temporal range: Late Pliocene to early Quaternary 3.6–2.6 Ma |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Sirenia |
| Family: | Dugongidae |
| Subfamily: | †Hydrodamalinae |
| Genus: | †Hydrodamalis |
| Species: |
†H. cuestae Domning, 1978 |
| Synonyms | |
The Cuesta sea cow (Hydrodamalis cuestae) is an extinct herbivorous marine mammal, and the direct ancestor of the Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas). They reached up to 9 metres (30 ft) in length, making them among the biggest sirenians to have ever lived. They were first described in 1978 by Daryl Domning when fossils in California were unearthed. Its appearance and behavior are largely based on that of the well-documented Steller's sea cow, who, unlike the Cuesta sea cow, lived into modern times and was well described.
†H. schinzii
†H. alleni
†D. jordani
†D. reinharti
†D. dewana
†D. takasatensis
†H. cuestae
Dugong dugon
The fossils of the Cuesta sea cow were first discovered in the Late Pliocene sediment formations of Pismo Beach, California in 1978, and following finds of the species were unearthed in California. In 1988, fossils of sea cows were discovered in Hokkaido, but were originally assigned to the Takikawa sea cow (H. spissa), a newly described species, but this is thought of by some scientists as a synonym of H. cuestae. It is uncertain whether or not H. spissa was simply a local variant of H. cuestae or a completely separate lineage. The Steller's sea cow was apparently a direct descendant of the Cuesta sea cow.
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