(n. pl.) An order of large aquatic herbivorous mammals, including the manatee, dugong, rytina, and several fossil genera.
Example Sentences:
(1) For the first time, sleep was studied in a representative of the order of Sirenia.
(2) Members of the order Sirenia are unique among mammals in being the only totally aquatic herbivores.
(3) Inspection of the amino acid differences among hemoglobin sequences of a wide range of mammalian species suggested that at alpha 19, alpha 110, alpha 111, beta 23, beta 44, and beta 56, synapomorphies group manatee (Trichechus inungius, Sirenia), Indian and African elephant (Elephas maximus and Loxodonta africana, Proboscidea), and rock hyrax (Procavia habessinica, Hyracoidea) into a monophyletic clade.
(4) Part of these cases (hairlessness in all Cetacea and Sirenia) may be explained in terms of both macromutations and obligatory gradualism.
(5) The hemoglobin of the Brazilian Manatee (Trichechus inunguis, Sirenia) consists of one component.
(6) However, it was not detected in the serum of members of the orders Carnivora, Sirenia, Proboscidea, Artiodactyla, and Primates that were tested, nor in the serum of members of the order Rodentia other than in that of the genus Mus.
(7) It was found on examining thousands of alternative trees that to not group Proboscidea, Hyracoidea, and Sirenia in a monophyletic clade required at least four additional substitutions.
(8) There is information on a total of 284 species, representing 6.2% of all species; 17.2% of all genera and 49.2% of all families have some representation, with quantitative information missing only from the orders Dermoptera, Pholidota, Sirenia and Tubulidentata.
(9) Results obtained by parsimony analysis provide evidence for this grouping--and thus support for the genealogical validity of Simpson's superorder Paenungulata, which contains as the extant orders Proboscidea, Sirenia, and Hyracoidea.
(10) Our interest in Sirenia stems from the desire to understand neuroanatomical specializations in the context of behavior and the effort to elucidate trends in mammalian brain evolution.
(11) Periods of evolution appear to coincide with the diversification of Carnivora and Sirenia, the first to become invaded; Artiodactyla and Equidae became invaded later, at the time of their diversification.
Sirenian
Definition:
(n.) Any species of Sirenia.
Example Sentences:
(1) Morphology indicated the close association of sirenians with proboscideans; proteins suggested a pairing of sirenians with hyracoids.
(2) Comparisons in the parasite fauna are made among Florida manatees and other sirenian populations, and a brief review of sirenian parasites is included.
(3) Amino acid-sequence and morphological data agreed on the placement of edentates as an early eutherian offshoot and on the grouping of hyracoids, proboscideans, and sirenians.
(4) There have been few reports concerning sirenian neuroanatomy, and most of these have consisted of gross anatomical observations.
(5) Sirenians, such as manatees and dugongs, are another family of marine mammals which have secondarily adapted to a fully aquatic existence, yet there is dispute about the status of their olfactory structures.