Category:Sirenia

Si*re"ni*a, n. pl. Etym: [nl.] (zoöl.)

Defn: an order of large aquatic herbivorous mammals, including the Manatee, dugong, rytina, and several fossil genera.

Note: the hind limbs are either rudimentary or wanting, and the front Ones are changed to paddles. They have horny plates on the front part Of the jaws, and usually flat-crowned molar teeth. The stomach is Complex and the intestine long, as in other herbivorous mammals. See Cetacea (b).