00:09We're in Three Sister Springs in Crystal River, Florida, and I'm going to tell you
00:12five things that you should know about manatees.
00:22Number one, manatees have pensile lips, which functions as a hand, that's how manatees are
00:28able to grab what they eat by these muscles in their face that basically act like a hand
00:33when they feed and when they even nozzle with each other.
00:42Number two, manatees and elephants share a common ancestor, that's why manatees have fingernails.
00:49And if you actually do an x-ray of a manatee flipper, you're going to see five fingers
00:54inside the fin.
00:58Number three, manatees actually have marching molars, teeth that march forward because they
01:04never stop growing.
01:05When their teeth wear out by eating all that abrasive plants with sand in it, they wear out,
01:10but they're able to grow teeth for life.
01:13Elephants also grow many teeth, but not as many as a manatee can grow throughout its whole lifetime.
01:18Number four, manatees have the longest lungs in the animal kingdom when it comes to how
01:24long the lungs are in ratio and in proportion to their bodies.
01:27That allows manatees to reach the surface by barely twitching a little, just a bare move
01:33for them to reach the surface and no one is better at buoyancy than manatees.
01:42Number five, manatees have whisker-like hairs all around their body, known also as tactile hair,
01:49that allows them to sense everything around them in complete pitch darkness.
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