Editing Steller's sea cow (section)

===Illustrations===

The Pallas Picture is the only known drawing of Steller's sea cow believed to be from a complete specimen. It was published by [[Peter Simon Pallas]] in his 1840 work {{lang|it|Icones ad Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica}}. Pallas did not specify a source; Stejneger suggested it may have been one of the original illustrations produced by Friedrich Plenisner, a member of [[Vitus Bering]]'s crew as a painter and surveyor who drew a figure of a female sea cow on Steller's request. Most of Plenisner's depictions were lost during transit from Siberia to Saint Petersburg.<ref name=stejneger1936>{{cite book |last=Stejneger |first=L. H. |year=1936 |title=Georg Wilhelm Steller, the Pioneer of Alaskan Natural History |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-576-29124-8 |oclc=836920902 |pages=1–623}}</ref><ref name=buechner/>

Another drawing of Steller's sea cow similar to the Pallas Picture appeared on a 1744 map drawn by Sven Waxell and Sofron Chitrow. The picture may have also been based upon a specimen, and was published in 1893 by Pekarski. The map depicted Vitus Bering's route during the [[Great Northern Expedition]], and featured illustrations of Steller's sea cow and Steller's sea lion in the upper-left corner. The drawing contains some inaccurate features such as the inclusion of eyelids and fingers, leading to doubt that it was drawn from a specimen.<ref name=stejneger1936/><ref name=buechner/>

[[Johann Friedrich von Brandt]], director of the Russian Academy of Sciences, had the "Ideal Image" drawn in 1846 based upon the Pallas Picture, and then the "Ideal Picture" in 1868 based upon collected skeletons. Two other possible drawings of Steller's sea cow were found in 1891 in Waxell's manuscript diary. There was a map depicting a sea cow, as well as a Steller sea lion and a northern fur seal. The sea cow was depicted with large eyes, a large head, claw-like hands, exaggerated folds on the body, and a tail fluke in perspective lying horizontally rather than vertically. The drawing may have been a distorted depiction of a juvenile, as the figure bears a resemblance to a [[manatee]] calf. Another similar image was found by [[Alexander von Middendorff]] in 1867 in the library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and is probably a copy of the Tsarskoye Selo Picture.<ref name=stejneger1936/><ref name=buechner>{{cite journal |last=Buechner |first=E. |year=1891 |title=Nordischen Seekuh |language=de |trans-title=Nordic Seacow |journal=Memoirs of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg Science |volume=38 |number=7 |pages=1–24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C2UhAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA6-PA0}}</ref>

{{Gallery|align=center|title=Early depictions of Steller's sea cow<ref name=stejneger1936/><ref name=buechner/>|File:Pallas Sea Cow.jpg|alt1=The body is oblong. On the left end is the head which is slightly smaller than the body, with a dot for an eye near the top. Just behind the head on the underside is an arm that bends back towards the tail. The tail is drawn sideways like that of a fish to show the knotch, and the top half of the tail is shaded darker than the bottom half.|The Pallas Picture: the only surviving drawing of Steller's sea cow by [[Friedrich Plenisner]], and possibly the only one drawn from a complete specimen (1840)|File:Chitrow - Seekuh, Seebaer und Seeloewe (Ausschnitt aus einer Karte).jpg|alt2=The Sea of Okhosk with the Kamchatka Peninsula to the left and Bering Island near the bottom. Above Bering Island and to the right of Russia are illustrations of Steller's sea cow and Steller's sea lion. For the sea cow, the body is oblong. On the left end is the head which is slightly smaller than the body, with a small eye with eyelids. Just behind the head on the underside is an arm that bends back towards the tail. The tail is drawn sideways like that of a fish to show the knotch, and the top half of the tail is shaded darker than the bottom half. For the sea lion, the back end of it is parallel to the ground, and the front end is perpendicular to the ground. The ears are thin and long. They have a thick neck, and a smashed-in face with the nose protruding. The front flipper is shaped like that of a dolphin, and drawn perpendicular to the ground, bending back towards the back-end. The back flipper is rectangular with four grooves parallel to each other on it.|The Pekarski Picture: a map of the [[Commander Islands]] including illustrations of Steller's sea cow and the [[Steller sea lion]] by a crew member of [[Vitus Bering]]'s [[Great Northern Expedition]] (1893)|File:Extanstellersseacowea.jpg|alt3=An oblong body with a small head, a hand with no visible fingers similar to a dolphin fin but pointed downward, and a tail fluke in the vertical position similar to a fish|The Ideal Image by [[Johann Friedrich von Brandt]] based on the Pallas Picture (1846)|File:Ледяной плен с. 097.png|alt4=An oblong body with a snout similar to a manatee with short hairs visible, a hand with no visible fingers similar to a dolphin fin but pointed downward, and a tail fluke in the vertical position similar to a fish|The Ideal Picture by [[Johann Friedrich von Brandt]] based on the Pallas Picture and skeletons (1868)|File:Waxell - Stellersche Seekuh.jpg|alt5=The animal is lying on the ground, a side view. It has a big head, a big eye, several vertical folds on the body, a hook-like hand, and a serrated tail fluke lying horizontally on the ground.|The Tsarskoye Selo Picture: a map of the [[Commander Islands]], including illustrations of Steller's sea cow, the [[Steller sea lion]], and the [[northern fur seal]], by [[Sven Waxell]] (1891); the tail is lying flat on the ground in perspective.|File:Hydrodamalis gigas.jpeg|alt6=Side view, a large body, a small head, a protruding snout, a small eye just behind the snout with eyelids, vertical folds on the body, and a serrated tail in a vertical position similar to a fish|The second Tsarskoye Selo Picture by Sven Waxell (1891)}}