Talk:Steller's Sea Cow

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[edit] Maximum size?

Wikipedia's figures are fairly well reproduced, but I have occasionally seen figures of 10.7 meters or 35 feet for this animal. This site mentions that the environment may have prevented the animals from growing to their maximum size, so could the 35 foot figure come from the fossil specimens? Cameron 16:20, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

--Steller mentions that the species grew up to 25 ft. But maybe there were some that grew past 30ft in ancient times when food was more abundant and a larger population meant more giants? --70.59.155.91 19:27, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Paranormal? cryptozoology? on what basis

On what basis is this animal considered to be within the scope of project paranormal, which deals with animals whose existence if proven would not be compatible with current views of normal science. This animal is merely extinct., or perhaps probably extinct. But there's fossil record and nothing that doesn't fit into normal biology.

Furthermore, how does it fit into cryptozoology? It would only fit if some people thought it was not extinct, and that there were current sightings. No evidence is presented in the article to show this--merely that Kipling chose to use such a possibility in a fictional framework. DGG 00:47, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

I fully agree that there is nothing paranormal about this animal. If some think that there may be surviving specimens though, it may be relevant to the "cryptozoology" project. --84.72.181.164 21:55, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree that the "cryptozoology" listing is very questionable. Is there a definition concerning how many people have to believe in a cryptid's existence for it to be relevant to the field? Additionally, should we maybe list every dinosaur species as a "cryptid" because I'm sure an occasional looney belives in their continued existence? --130.92.9.58 16:33, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] weight & units

Someone feel like cleaning up the bit on weight? First it weighs up to three tons, then it weighs 4-24 tons. Are we trying to say something like, "Steller gives weights of 4 and 24.3 tons, but it is now generally believed the animals weighed around 3 tons"? Or are modern scholars clueless as to whether it's 3, 4 or 24? Either way it should be made more clear. And for that matter, maybe whoever sorts that out can sort out the units of mass too. Kilograms (with pounds in parentheses) would be better than "tons", which could mean several different units. - Severinus 08:35, 27 March 2007 (UTC)