Hyraxes are small furry mammals of Africa and South Asia, whose diet consists of plants and fruit. Oddly enough, the nearest relatives of the hyrax among other mammals are the:
In the famous Warner Brothers cartoons, a fast-moving bird called a “road runner” makes life difficult for a not-so-wily coyote. The real road runner is actually a type of:
Like anteaters, all four of the following animals have long snouts and long sticky tongues for eating insects such as ants and termites. However, only one is actually a member of the anteater family. Which is it?
The chevrotain, or mouse deer, of which there are several species living in Africa and Asia, is the world’s smallest hoofed mammal. It is not a true deer; in fact, scientists believe that the chevrotain’s nearest animal kin is the:
The natural gait of horses, and many other animals, is trotting, in which the legs are advanced in diagonal pairs. Pacing, in which the legs on one side advance together, is natural to only a few animals, such as the camel, the cat and the...
In 1741, an unknown marine mammal nearly as big as a killer whale was discovered by Georg Wilhelm Steller, sailing with Captain Bering on a North Pacific voyage. Steller’s sea cow, as the creature came to be called, was:
Most commercial silk fiber is produced by silkworms, a kind of caterpillar native to China. The silkworm is a fussy eater; in fact, it dines on nothing but:
