Article 6T9GD Florida’s manatees are actually relative newcomers, historical research suggests

Florida’s manatees are actually relative newcomers, historical research suggests

by
Richard Luscombe in Miami
from on (#6T9GD)

State's beloved but under-pressure sea cows were barely recorded in the area before seas warmed in the late 1700s

Manatees, long considered among Florida's most beloved and enchanting inhabitants, are not native at all, and only came to the Sunshine state for warm temperatures and clear blue waters like any other visitor, researchers have found.

The surprise revelation by scientists at the University of South Florida (USF) and George Washington University (GWU) upends decades of thinking about the origins of the threatened species, once plentiful around the Florida peninsula, the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.

Continue reading...
External Content
Source RSS or Atom Feed
Feed Location http://feeds.theguardian.com/theguardian/environment/rss
Feed Title
Feed Link http://feeds.theguardian.com/
Reply 0 comments