What Is The Scientific Name Of Dugong? (ANSWER)
SCIENTIFIC NAME OF DUGONG – In this topic, we are going to know and identify the scientific name of dugong.
Also known as “sea cow”, “sea pig” and “sea camel”, the dugong is a medium-sized marine mammal and one of the four living of the Sirenia order. It belongs to the dugong family Dugonginae.
The Wunambal people of the Mitchell Plateau in the Kimberley, Western Australia call this species as balguja. The term dugong is derived from the Visayan term dugung.
The species is largely dependent on seagrass communities for subsistence. It falls under the Vulnerable category in the IUCN Red List.
It has a fusiform body with no dorsal fin or hind limbs. Its flippers are paddle-like. Dugong is easily distinguished from the manatees by its fluked, dolphin-like tail. It also possesses a unique skull and teeth of its own.
The dugong has a sharply downturned snout, which is its adaptation for feeding in benthic seagrass communities.
Scientific Name
The binomial name of dugong is Dugong dugon.
Dugong is a genus of the Dugonginae family, as mentioned above, it is derived from the Visayan term dugung.
The specific epithet dugon was given by French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in Histoire Naturelle (1765).
