Editing Steller's sea cow (section)

==Range==
[[File:Steller's sea cow range.png|thumb|upright=1.5|left|Steller's sea cow distribution; yellow during the Pleistocene; red for archaeological evidence; and blue for historical records]]
The range of Steller's sea cow at the time of its discovery was apparently restricted to the shallow seas around the [[Commander Islands]], which include Bering and [[Medny Island|Copper]] Islands.<ref name=crerar/><ref name=mattioli2006/><ref name=forsten/> The Commander Islands remained uninhabited until 1825, when the [[Russian-American Company]] relocated [[Aleut]]s from [[Attu Island]] and [[Atka Island]] there.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Derbeneva |first1=Olga A. |last2=Sukernik |first2=Rem I. |last3=Volodko |first3=Natalia V. |last4=Hosseini |first4=Seyed H. |last5=Lott |first5=Marie T. |last6=Wallace |first6=Douglas C. |year=2002 |title=Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA Diversity in the Aleuts of the Commander Islands and Its Implications for the Genetic History of Beringia |journal=[[American Journal of Human Genetics]] |doi=10.1086/341720 |pmc=379174 |pmid=12082644 |volume=71 |issue=2 |pages=415–421 |quote=In 1825–1826, the Russian-American company transferred Aleut families from Attu Island, the westernmost of the Aleutian chain, as well as from Atka/Andreyanov Islands, to the Commanders}}</ref>

The first [[fossil]]s discovered outside the Commander Islands were found in [[interglacial]] Pleistocene deposits in [[Amchitka]],<ref name=whitmore/> and further fossils dating to the late Pleistocene were found in [[Monterey Bay]], California, and [[Honshu]], Japan. This suggests that the sea cow had a far more extensive range in prehistoric times, but the possibility that these fossils belong to other ''Hydrodamalis'' species cannot be excluded.<ref name=mattioli2006/><ref name=Anderson>{{cite journal |last=Anderson |first=Paul K. |date=July 1995 |title=Competition, Predation, and the Evolution and Extinction of Steller's Sea Cow, ''Hydrodamalis gigas'' |journal=[[Marine Mammal Science]] |doi=10.1111/j.1748-7692.1995.tb00294.x |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=391–394|bibcode=1995MMamS..11..391A }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=MacDonald |first1=Stephen O. |last2=Cook |first2=Joseph A. |year=2009 |title=Recent Mammals of Alaska |publisher=[[University of Alaska Press]] |location=Fairbanks, Alaska |isbn=978-1-60223-047-7 |oclc=488523994 |pages=57–58 <!-- Deny Citation Bot -->|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wIHvCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA57}}</ref> The southernmost find is a [[Middle Pleistocene]] rib bone from the [[Bōsō Peninsula]] of Japan.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=H.|last1=Furusawa|first2=N.|last2=Kohno|year=1994|title=Steller's sea-cow (Sirenia: ''Hydrodamalis gigas'') from the Middle Pleistocene Mandano Formation of the Boso Peninsula, central Japan|journal=Japanese Paleontological Society|volume=56|doi=10.14825/kaseki.56.0_26|url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/kaseki/56/0/56_KJ00003661858/_pdf/-char/ja|language=ja}}</ref> The remains of three individuals were found preserved in the [[South Bight Formation]] of Amchitka; as late Pleistocene interglacial deposits are rare in the Aleutians, the discovery suggests that sea cows were abundant during that era. According to Steller, the sea cow often resided in the shallow, sandy shorelines and in the mouths of freshwater rivers.<ref name=whitmore/> Genetic evidence suggests that Steller's sea cow, as well as the modern dugong, suffered a [[population bottleneck]] (a significant reduction in population) bottoming roughly 400,000 years ago.<ref name=Sharko2021/>

Bone fragments and accounts by native Aleut people suggest that sea cows also historically inhabited the [[Near Islands]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Corbett |first1=D. G. |last2=Causey |first2=D. |last3=Clemente |first3=M. |last4=Koch |first4=P. L. |last5=Doroff |first5=A. |last6=Lefavre |first6=C. |last7=West |first7=D. |year=2008 |title=Human Impacts on Ancient Marine Ecosystems |chapter=Aleut Hunters, Sea Otters, and Sea Cows |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-93429-0 |oclc=929645577 |jstor=10.1525/j.ctt1pphh3 |doi = 10.1525/9780520934290-005 | pages=43–76|s2cid=226791158 }}</ref> possibly with viable populations that were in contact with humans in the western [[Aleutian Islands]] prior to Steller's discovery in 1741. A sea cow rib discovered in 1998 on [[Kiska Island]] was [[radiocarbon dating|dated]] to around 1,000 years old, and is now in the possession of the [[Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture|Burke Museum]] in Seattle; the dating may be skewed due to the marine reservoir effect, which causes radiocarbon-dated marine specimens to appear several hundred years older than they are. (Marine reservoir effect is caused by the large reserves of [[carbon-14|C<sup>14</sup>]] in the ocean, and it is more likely that the animal died between 1710 and 1785.<ref name=domning2007>{{cite journal |last1=Domning |first1=Daryl P. |last2=Thomason |first2=James |last3=Corbett |first3=Debra G. |year=2007 |title=Steller's sea cow in the Aleutian Islands |journal=Marine Mammal Science |doi=10.1111/j.1748-7692.2007.00153.x |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=976–983 |bibcode=2007MMamS..23..976D |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227985287}}</ref> A 2004 study reported that sea cow bones discovered on [[Adak Island]] were around 1,700 years old, and sea cow bones discovered on [[Buldir Island]] were found to be around 1,600 years old.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last1=Savinetsky |first1=A. B. |last2=Kiseleva |first2=N. K. |last3=Khassanov |first3=B. F. |year=2004 |title=Dynamics of sea mammaland bird populations of the Bering Sea region over the last several millennia |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2004.02.009 |volume=209 |issue=1–4 |pages=335–352|bibcode=2004PPP...209..335S }}</ref> It is possible that these bones were from cetaceans and were misclassified.<ref name=domning2007/> Rib bones of a Steller's sea cow have also been found on [[St. Lawrence Island]], from a specimen that is thought to have lived between 800 and 920 [[Current Era|CE]].<ref name=crerar>{{cite journal |last1=Crerar |first1=Lorelei D. |last2=Crerar |first2=Andrew P. |last3=Domning |first3=Daryl P. |last4=Parsons |first4=E. C. M. |year=2014 |title=Rewriting the history of an extinction—was a population of Steller's sea cows (''Hydrodamalis gigas'') at St Lawrence Island also driven to extinction? |journal=[[Biology Letters]] |doi=10.1098/rsbl.2014.0878 |pmid=25428930 |pmc=4261872 |volume=10 |issue=11 |page=20140878 }}</ref>