Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to the Sirenia, or having their characters.
  • noun A member of the Sirenia, as a manatee, dugong, or sea-cow.
  • Pertaining to or characteristic of a siren.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any species of Sirenia.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun zoology Any of a group of aquatic, herbivorous mammals, of the order Sirenia, including the manatees and dugong.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of two families of large herbivorous aquatic mammals with paddle-shaped tails and flipper-like forelimbs and no hind limbs

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From New Latin Sīrēnia, order name, from Latin Sīrēn, Siren; see siren.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Scientific Latin Sirenia.

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Examples

  • ‘The earliest known fully quadrupedal sirenian’, Nature, 413, 625–7.

    THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH RICHARD DAWKINS 2009

  • After D. P. Domning, ‘The earliest known fully quadrupedal sirenian’,Nature 413 11 Oct. 2001, 626–7, fig.

    THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH RICHARD DAWKINS 2009

  • ‘The earliest known fully quadrupedal sirenian’, Nature, 413, 625–7.

    THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH RICHARD DAWKINS 2009

  • After D. P. Domning, ‘The earliest known fully quadrupedal sirenian’,Nature 413 11 Oct. 2001, 626–7, fig.

    THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH RICHARD DAWKINS 2009

  • Nineteen other species of invertebrates are known: three species of early sirenian (sea cow), one partial skeleton of the primitive proboscidian Moeritherium, early mammals, sharks, crocodiles, three kinds of sawfish, rays, cartilaginous and bony fishes, several kinds of turtles, including a sea turtle and a sea snake.

    Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley), Egypt 2008

  • While I most certainly do not want to get rude about the speaker or his talk, he unfortunately provided a review of sirenian biology that was unoriginal, boring and thoroughly outdated and inaccurate.

    Archive 2006-01-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • Daryl Domning, world expert on sirenian evolution and history, published a paper on manatee evolution in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology last year.

    Archive 2006-01-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • Granted, there are sirenian workers who have, indeed, suggested that Atlantic rifting might explain manatee distribution … but, those workers were publishing their papers in the early years of the 20th century (Arldt 1907)!

    Archive 2006-01-01 Darren Naish 2006

Comments

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  • E.g. Manatee?

    July 1, 2009