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#mammalidentifier – @zenosanalytic on Tumblr
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Racing Turtles

@zenosanalytic / zenosanalytic.tumblr.com

"Why run, my little Phoenician?"
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Okay this one I've got no fuckin clue

Uhhh hey @mammalidentifier Long time no see, got any clue what this is ?

Hi! This is our good old friend, the rock hyrax (Procavia capensis)! You might know them from that one TikTok of the three little animals climbing all over a person to get a sip of their tea. Those are the exact same species of hyrax as this guy here! Except for the fact the ones in that video are babies and this one’s a grown adult.

Here’s a fun fact about hyraxes: their closest living relatives are dugongs, manatees and elephants! Yes, it’s kind of hard to see it at first, but if you look more closely, you’ll realize they definitely share some family resemblance when it comes to the very unique trait of having incisors for tusks. In all other mammals with tusks, they’re their canine teeth instead!

Sadly, only dugongs still have their little tusks. Manatees lost theirs during their evolutionary process. As adorable as they are, they weren’t particularly necessary for grazing underwater.

Manatees kept another vestigial trait from back when they were land mammals that dugongs have lost, though: toenails! And as it turns out, toenails are another thing they have in common with their elephant and hyrax cousins:

Both elephants and hyraxes have one extra toenail in their front feet compared to their back feet. Manatees do not because sirenians don’t have hind limbs at all, just vestigial pelvic bones. No need for them when you have a paddle for a tail!

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