Hark! Next time you see a bot-post / shit-post asking what the closest relative is to a hyrax, here's how you might respond! :D [guest-post from an old contributor]
Welp, the traditional internet (and hugely-wrong) answer is "elephants," and there actually *is* a wonderful sublemmy if you like "heffalumps": (hahaha, I love how A.A. Milne described them that way in Winnie-the-Pooh )
Yes, it's this! ❤️
![email protected]
https://media.piefed.social/posts/R7/jE/R7jEKz3KAX0LnQG.webp
Now, the reasoning in that fallacious logic is that the Proboscids (ancestors of elephants) and Hyracoids (ancestors of cute little hyraxes) indeed once shared a common ancestor!
Thing is, YES-- they did... around 60-75Myrs ago. Also yes, all others of their relatives didn't survive in to modernity, an incredibly common thing across life & evolution.
Right, I haven't done a deep-dive myself in to that theoretical common ancestor, but maybe:
https://media.springernature.com/lw703/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fnature.2013.12398/MediaObjects/41586_2013_Article_BFnature201312398_Figa_HTML.jpg
Perhaps another way of saying that, despite all the natural branching-points of life on Earth, is that only a tiny fraction of the species that once existed on our Ball o' Fun are still alive today (maybe about ~0.5% as a median estimate?). And... that's just the way the ball bounces, I suppose? :S
Bah, in any case, here's the ACTUAL answer to that question-- "the closest relative to any one hyrax is... their littermates and parents," of course. But in terms of SPECIES? (and here's my whole point:)
In species-scale, the closest relative to a hyrax is... hahaha other hyraxes!!
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Ask your parents or grandparents, they might remember them 🤣
If your parents or grandparents are 60-75Myrs old, my friends, then even Mel Brooks might be interested in your lineage! XD
Seriously, tho, thanks for the correction.
@[email protected]
I know man I didn't know it was that recent.
Another community for the other side of this post, [email protected]
Hi Otter! Guess this is an 'other' acct of yours?
Whoa... amazing that place has so many subscribers! Count it +1 now. :D
Kinda reminds me of @[email protected]'s work for SuperbOwl. Do you know it? (and apologies for two name-drops in the past couple days, anon)
Definitely, superbowl is one of my favourite animal communities on here. :) Anon6789 takes great care of the community
Meanwhile taneggs has grown thanks to the hard work of DaMonsterKnees :)
Huh! That's interesting.
So... what do you feel the hyrax-love stems from, if I may ask?
I mean-- there's a load of cute, furry / feathery animals out there, but ask me how many sub-lemmies / sub-pies subscribe to gophers, right..? XD
What's fun about TanEggs is that it includes any animal that fits some or all of the requirements in the sidebar:
It was inspired by this tumblr post, which pointed out that a number of animals fit into that niche in different parts of the world: https://mander.xyz/post/19002886
Hyraxes seem to be getting some extra love, and I suspect it is because of the videos on social media of them screaming "Awawa" 😄. However it's not limited to those. I've also seen posts for pikas and rabbits, and even gophers/groundhogs would qualify.
That might have helped the community grow since there is so much content to go around. A user doesn't need to like hyraxes/pikas/groundhogs specifically, just that general shape/aesthetic lol
Huh!
Well, thank you for that. 🙂
No worries! I'm here for talking to.
That is a pretty wild family tree with elephants, manatees and hyraxes.
There are so many unsung heroes of evolution that we'll never know about. They failed so all of us alive now could succeed.
This probably goes back 10-15yrs, but there was this youngish Romanian gal who taught me that in fact, every single species is a transitional species. I.e., you cannot name a single species across history that isn't, you understand? To me, this is a WHOMPINGLY relevant point upon the whole process of evolution.
And for me, that's after taking multiple biology & zoology courses in HS and college, haha, which sort of imparted the idea that there are 'discrete steps' to the whole evolution thang, if that makes sense.
Then this gal just blew me out of the water (particularly since I was in the States & she's in E.Europe and her English was damn-good)! But it was her dangol' message that was so on-point.
Oof, took me an hour to FINALLY found that wunderkind, but I finally FOUND HER: :D
https://www.youtube.com/@ZOMGitsCriss
So I'm going through her videos as we speak, but I fear... gosh, that she might have been killed in regional violence / politics ~8yrs ago. That's when she disappeared.
*&@#$, she was one of the most smartest-effective-relevant people I've listened to in my life. DAMMIT!