Mammoths didn’t just look like elephants — they were actually part of the elephant family! Modern elephants and mammoths both belong to the same family, called Elephantidae. But here’s something interesting: mammoths didn’t turn into the elephants we see today. Instead, they were more like distant cousins. The elephant family first appeared in Africa around […]
Are mammoths and elephants related? Read More »
You know those jellyfish, sea anemones, and corals you see in aquariums or ocean documentaries? Believe it or not, they’re all part of the same weird and wonderful animal family, called cnidarians. (It’s a tricky word — it sounds like “nid-air-ee-ans.”) They might not look related at first glance, but they all have soft bodies,
Jellyfish, anemones and corals Read More »
The great auk (Pinguinus impennis), also known as the penguin or garefowl, was a fascinating flightless bird that sadly went extinct in the mid-1800s. It first appeared around 400,000 years ago and was the only modern species in its genus, Pinguinus. Interestingly, even though it was often called a “penguin,” it wasn’t actually related to
The quagga (/ˈkwɑːxɑː/ or /ˈkwæɡə/)[2][3] (Equus quagga quagga) was a special type of plains zebra that lived only in South Africa. Sadly, it was hunted so much that it disappeared completely by the late 1800s. For a long time, people thought the quagga was its own separate species, but recent DNA studies showed it was actually just a subspecies of
The Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus), Javan rhino, Sunda rhinoceros or lesser one-horned rhinoceros is a critically endangered member of the genus Rhinoceros, of the rhinoceros family Rhinocerotidae, and one of the five remaining extant rhinoceros species in South Asia and Africa. It has a plate-like skin with protective folds and is one of the smallest rhinoceros species with a body length of 3.1–3.2 m (10–10 ft) and a 1.4–1.7 m (4 ft 7 in –
The Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is a leopard subspecies native to the Primorye region of southeastern Russia and northern China. It is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, as in 2007, only 19–26 wild leopards were estimated to survive in southeastern Russia and northeastern China.[1] As of 2015, fewer than 60 individuals were estimated to survive in Russia and China.[4] Camera-trapping surveys conducted between 2014
The Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) is a species of orangutan restricted to South Tapanuli in the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.[3] It is one of three known species of orangutan, alongside the Sumatran orangutan (P. abelii), found farther northwest on the island, and the Bornean orangutan (P. pygmaeus). It was described as a distinct species in 2017.[4] As of 2018, there are roughly 800 individuals of this species and it is currently
Tapanuli orangutan Read More »
