‘Sea Cow’ that evoked mermaids extinct: Study- UPSC Daily Important Topic | 4 September 2022

‘Sea Cow’ that evoked mermaids extinct: Study-

✓Dugong, a species of ‘sea cow’ that roams the ocean floor in Asia and Africa, has not been spotted off China’s southern coast for centuries.

●  New Findings:

✓Dugong has become the first large vertebrate to go functionally extinct in China’s coastal waters.

✓It is the result of a rapid population collapse there that began in the mid-1970s.

✓“Functional extinction” means that even if some dugongs are alive off China’s coast, their numbers are too small to maintain a viable population.