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Simenstad, Charles A.; Estes, James A.; Kenyon, Karl W.
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1978 |
Aleuts, sea otters, and alternate stable-state communities.
Science 200: 403-411. 2 tabs. 5 figs. Apr. 28, 1978.
–Mentions the former role of Hydrodamalis gigas in nearshore marine communities of the Aleutians (409).
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Estes, James A.; Steinberg, Peter D.
(detail)
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1988 |
Predation, herbivory, and kelp evolution.
Paleobiology 14(1): 19-36. 1 tab. 1 fig. Winter 1988.
–Briefly reviews the history of North Pacific sirs. and desmostylians, arguing that the Late Miocene appearance of sirs. adapted to kelp-eating supports the hypothesis that kelps did not become abundant or diverse until that time (21-22). See also Domning (1989a).
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Estes, James A.; Steinberg, Peter D.
(detail)
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1989 |
Response to Domning [1989a].
Paleobiology 15(1): 57-60. "Winter 1989" (mailed June 13, 1989).
–Defends a late Cenozoic date for the adaptive radiation of kelps, and points out limitations on the likely roles of sirs. and desmostylians as kelp herbivores.
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Jackson, Jeremy B. C.; Kirby, Michael X.; Berger, Wolfgang H.; Bjorndal, Karen A.; Botsford, Louis W.; Bourque, Bruce J.; Bradbury, Roger H.; Cooke, Richard; Erlandson, John; Estes, James A.; Hughes, Terence P.; Kidwell, Susan; Lange, Carina B.; Lenihan, Hunter S.; Pandolfi, John M.; Peterson, Charles H.; Steneck, Robert S.; Tegner, Mia J.; Warner, Robert R.
(detail)
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2001 |
Historical overfishing and the recent collapse of coastal ecosystems.
Science 293(5530): 629-638. 1 tab. 3 figs. July 27, 2001.
–Discusses the exploitation of Steller's sea cows and Australian dugongs. Estimates that eastern Australia once supported 1 million to 3.6 million dugongs (now reduced to an estimated 14,000), with over 104,000 in Moreton Bay alone (now an estimated 500 only). These historical estimates are considered too high by at least some dugong biologists.
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Estes, James A.; Burdin, Alexander; Doak, Daniel F.
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2015 |
Sea otters, kelp forests, and the extinction of Steller's sea cow.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 113(4): 880-885. 4 figs. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1502552112 Jan. 26, 2016 (publ. online Oct. 26, 2015).
–ABSTRACT: The late Pleistocene extinction of so many large-bodied vertebrates has been variously attributed to two general causes: rapid climate change and the effects of humans as they spread from the Old World to previously uninhabited continents and islands. Many large-bodied vertebrates, especially large apex predators, maintain their associated ecosystems through top-down forcing processes, especially trophic cascades, and megaherbivores also exert an array of strong indirect effects on their communities. Thus, a third possibility for at least some of the Pleistocene extinctions is that they occurred through habitat changes resulting from the loss of these other keystone species. Here we explore the plausibility of this mechanism, using information on sea otters, kelp forests, and the recent extinction of Steller's sea cows from the Commander Islands. Large numbers of sea cows occurred in the Commander Islands at the time of their discovery by Europeans in 1741. Although extinction of these last remaining sea cows during early years of the Pacific maritime fur trade is widely thought to be a consequence of direct human overkill, we show that it is also a probable consequence of the loss of sea otters and the co-occurring loss of kelp, even if not a single sea cow had been killed directly by humans. This example supports the hypothesis that the directly caused extinctions of a few large vertebrates in the late Pleistocene may have resulted in the coextinction of numerous other species.
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Le Duc, Diana; Velluva, Akhil; Cassatt-Johnstone, Molly; Olsen, Remi-Andre; Baleka, Sina; Lin, Chen-Ching; Lemke, Johannes R.; Southon, John R.; Burdin, Alexander; Wang, Ming-Shan; Grunewald, Sonja; Rosendahl, Wilfried; Joger, Ulrich; Rutschmann, Sereina; Hildebrandt, Thomas B.; Fritsch, Guido; Estes, James A.; Kelso, Janet; Dalén, Love; Hofreiter, Michael; Shapiro, Beth; Schöneberg, Torsten
(detail)
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2022 |
Genomic basis for skin phenotype and cold adaptation in the extinct Steller's sea cow.
Science Advances 8(5): 3 figs. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl6496 Feb. 4, 2022.
–ABSTRACT: Steller's sea cow, an extinct sirenian and one of the largest Quaternary mammals, was described by Georg Steller in 1741 and eradicated by humans within 27 years. Here, we complement Steller's descriptions with paleogenomic data from 12 individuals. We identified convergent evolution between Steller's sea cow and cetaceans but not extant sirenians, suggesting a role of several genes in adaptation to cold aquatic (or marine) environments. Among these are inactivations of lipoxygenase genes, which in humans and mouse models cause ichthyosis, a skin disease characterized by a thick, hyperkeratotic epidermis that recapitulates Steller's sea cows' reportedly bark-like skin. We also found that Steller's sea cows' abundance was continuously declining for tens of thousands of years before their description, implying that environmental changes also contributed to their extinction.
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Bibliography and Index of the Sirenia and Desmostylia 