Today’s manatees often summer off the coast of Texas and Florida, heading farther south towards warmer waters in winter. New fossils suggest that their Ice Age ancestors may have made the same migrations.
Manatees lived in Texas during the last ice age, according to fossil evidence found along beaches
Eight Pleistocene manatee bones - ribs, jaws and other fragments - found along the Texas coast reveal that manatees either lived in the area or visited it regularly between 11,000 and 240,000 years ago. This finding is surprising because it indicates that either Texas coastal waters were warmer than expected during the Ice Age, or ancient manatees were more tolerant of cold than their modern relatives.