Scientific Classification

The manatee is a unique marine mammal. Sometimes called a sea cow, it belongs to the order Sirenia, which includes three species of manatee and one species of dugong. The manatee belongs to the famliy Trichechidae and the genusTrichechus (Linnaeus, 1758). There are currently three species of manatee: Trichechus senegalensis (African manatee), Trichechus inunguis (Amazonian manatee), andTrichechus manatus (West Indian manatee). However, the last species mentioned can be further divided into two sub-species: Trichechus manatus manatus(Caribbean manatee) and Trichechus manatus latirostris (Florida manatee). New evidence suggests that there may be another species of manatee branching off of the species of Amazonian manatee, Trichechus inunguis pygmaeus (Dwarf manatee). This newly discovered manatee lives in the Amazon, but it has some very distinct differences from the Amazonian manatee, one of them being that it is much smaller in size (hence, it is called the "dwarf manatee").