Giada Ferrante

Gentle grazers

Manatees evolved adaptations for harvesting and digesting aquatic plants after their land-dwelling ancestors took to water 50 million years ago. But degradation of their wate

How manatees eat 100 pounds of food a day Gorgeous, gentle, and gassy, the marine mammals’ bodies adapted to graze underwater—but their main food source, seagrass, is getting harder to find.