Manatees – Molars and More

Manatees- Marching Molars and More
Ambience: manatee underwater vocalizations

They’re friendly, docile marine mammals, nearly hunted to extinction by man, and they’re quite remarkable in a number of ways – including their teeth. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. We’re listening to the underwater calls of manatees.

Rose: Panatees are plant eaters. They eat all kinds of vegetation whether its seagrass in marine systems or floating submerged aquatic vegetation in freshwater.

Pat Rose is an aquatic biologist and the executive director of the Save the Manatee Club.

Rose: Their teeth are an amazing adaptation. They call them marching molars. They’re worn down by eating the plants and the sand and all those kinds of things. Literally they’re marching from the back to the front. The front ones fall out. the new ones are coming in. Otherwise they would die, because they wouldn’t have teeth to eat their food.
They literally start new ones in the back and you can see the front ones and as they move forward you can see the front ones are very thin planes of teeth. They’ll fall out, the new ones right behind it. So they keep making it.

Rose: They’re really well adapted to the aquatic environment and their lungs are really long and run down the length of the mid part of their body. They compress that air down to a lower volume, which causes them to sink. Manatees can stay under water for 16 or more minutes if they’re at rest and really taking a nap and sleeping.
They can literally come to the surface and breathe without waking up, just by loosening their muscles that expands the air to come to the surface to breathe, compress it again inside their body, and go down and sleep on the bottom.

To see a live webcam of manatees above and below the surface of the water, check out manatv.org. Pulse of the Planet is made possible in part by the National Science Foundation and Virginia Tech, inventing the future through a hands-on approach to education and research.

Manatees - Molars and More

If they're napping, they can come to the surface and breathe without waking up, just by loosening the muscles that expands the air in their lungs.
Air Date:04/12/2022
Scientist:
Transcript:

Manatees- Marching Molars and More Ambience: manatee underwater vocalizations They're friendly, docile marine mammals, nearly hunted to extinction by man, and they're quite remarkable in a number of ways - including their teeth. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. We're listening to the underwater calls of manatees. Rose: Panatees are plant eaters. They eat all kinds of vegetation whether its seagrass in marine systems or floating submerged aquatic vegetation in freshwater. Pat Rose is an aquatic biologist and the executive director of the Save the Manatee Club. Rose: Their teeth are an amazing adaptation. They call them marching molars. They're worn down by eating the plants and the sand and all those kinds of things. Literally they're marching from the back to the front. The front ones fall out. the new ones are coming in. Otherwise they would die, because they wouldn't have teeth to eat their food. They literally start new ones in the back and you can see the front ones and as they move forward you can see the front ones are very thin planes of teeth. They'll fall out, the new ones right behind it. So they keep making it. Rose: They're really well adapted to the aquatic environment and their lungs are really long and run down the length of the mid part of their body. They compress that air down to a lower volume, which causes them to sink. Manatees can stay under water for 16 or more minutes if they're at rest and really taking a nap and sleeping. They can literally come to the surface and breathe without waking up, just by loosening their muscles that expands the air to come to the surface to breathe, compress it again inside their body, and go down and sleep on the bottom. To see a live webcam of manatees above and below the surface of the water, check out manatv.org. Pulse of the Planet is made possible in part by the National Science Foundation and Virginia Tech, inventing the future through a hands-on approach to education and research.