What is "steller's sea cow"

steller \stel"ler\, n. [After Geo. W. Steller, a German naturalist.] (Zo["o]l.) The rytina; -- called also stellerine and Steller's sea cow. See rytina.

Steller's sea cow \Stel"ler's sea" cow`\, prop. n. [After Geo. W. Steller, a German naturalist.] (Zo["o]l.) The rytina; -- called also stellerine and steller. See rytina.

Rytina \Ryt"i*na\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. "ryti`s a wrinkle.] (Zo["o]l.) A genus of large edentulous sirenians, allied to the dugong and manatee, including but one species ( Rytina Stelleri); -- called also Steller's sea cow, stellerine and steller. [Written also Rhytina.]

Note: It is now extinct, but was formerly abundant at Bering's Island, near Bering's Straits. It was twenty-five feet or more in length, with a thick, blackish, naked skin. The last were killed in 1768 for their oil and flesh.

The Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) is an extinct herbivorous marine mammal. It was the largest member of the order Sirenia, which includes its closest living relative, the dugong (Dugong dugon), and the manatees (Trichechus spp.). It reached up to in length, making it among the largest mammals other than whales to have existed in the holocene epoch. It was first described by Georg Wilhelm Steller. Although the sea cow had formerly been abundant throughout the North Pacific, by the mid 1700s, its range had been limited to a single, isolated population surrounding the uninhabited Commander Islands. It was hunted for its meat, skin, and fat by fur traders, and was also hunted by aboriginals of the North Pacific coast. Within 27 years of discovery by Europeans, the slow-moving and easily captured Steller's sea cow was hunted to extinction.