See Also:

Wistar (iou) and sea cow (sh)


Wistar (iou)



Wistar noun. M20.
[The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, Philadelphia, USA, founded by I. J. Wistar (1827-1905).]
Medicine & Biology. Used attrib. to designate rats bred from a strain developed for laboratory purposes.

sea cow (sh)




or Steller's sea cow

Extinct aquatic mammal (Hydrodamalis gigas) that lived around islands in the Bering Sea.

It was discovered in 1741 and described by a member of Vitus Bering's expedition. At least 24 ft (7.5 m) long, it had no teeth, a small head, and a broad, horizontal, forked tail fluke; its dark brown skin was sometimes streaked or spotted with white. It browsed on seaweed. Russian sealers hunted it for Food and fur; by 1768 the entire population, estimated at about 5,000, had been exterminated. The term also refers to dugongs and manatees.