Handbook of the mammals of the world : vol. 4 : sea mammals

Humankind has long felt a kinship of ocean-dwelling mammals, and human culture, customs, and literature abound with sea mammal lore. This volume covers 19 families in 3 orders. Sirenians (like manatees) are evolutionarily distant from both pinnipeds (meaning "fin-footed") and cetaceans, but ecological similarity argues for keeping these three groups together in one volume. The bulk of the volume is devoted to the cetaceans, by far the largest group of mammals inhabiting the oceans of the world full time.