Jul 92 - Hyrax, Table Mountain, Cape Town
Said to be the elephant's closest living relative (the elephant must not have any close relatives), these cat-sized things are found in Africa and the Middle East, and, according to the net: "early Phoenician navigators mistook the rabbits of the Iberian Peninsula for hyraxes (Hebrew Shaphan); hence they named it I-Shapan-im, meaning "land of the hyraxes", which became the Latin word "Hispania", the root of Spain's modern Spanish name España and the English name Spain..."
- For your inner zoologist: "The order first appears in the fossil record over 40 million years ago, and for millions of years they were the primary terrestrial herbivore in Africa. There were many species, the largest @ the weight of a small horse, the smallest the size of a hummingbird. In the Miocene, however, competition from the newly-developed bovids—very efficient grazers and browsers—pushed hyraxes out of the prime territory and into marginal niches... Some of the descendants of the giant hyracoids evolved to become smaller, and gave rise to the modern hyrax family. Others appear to have taken to the water, and ultimately gave rise to the elephant family, and perhaps also the Sirenians (dugongs and manatees). DNA evidence supports this theory, and modern hyraxes share features with elephants such as toenails, excellent hearing, sensitive pads on their feet, small tusks, good memory, high brain functions compared to other similar mammals, and the shape of some of their bones ... They retain a number of early mammal characteristics; e.g. they have poorly developed internal temperature regulation (which they deal with by huddling together for warmth, and by basking in the sun like reptiles)." (Wikipedia)
Jul 92 - Hyrax, Table Mountain, Cape Town
Said to be the elephant's closest living relative (the elephant must not have any close relatives), these cat-sized things are found in Africa and the Middle East, and, according to the net: "early Phoenician navigators mistook the rabbits of the Iberian Peninsula for hyraxes (Hebrew Shaphan); hence they named it I-Shapan-im, meaning "land of the hyraxes", which became the Latin word "Hispania", the root of Spain's modern Spanish name España and the English name Spain..."
- For your inner zoologist: "The order first appears in the fossil record over 40 million years ago, and for millions of years they were the primary terrestrial herbivore in Africa. There were many species, the largest @ the weight of a small horse, the smallest the size of a hummingbird. In the Miocene, however, competition from the newly-developed bovids—very efficient grazers and browsers—pushed hyraxes out of the prime territory and into marginal niches... Some of the descendants of the giant hyracoids evolved to become smaller, and gave rise to the modern hyrax family. Others appear to have taken to the water, and ultimately gave rise to the elephant family, and perhaps also the Sirenians (dugongs and manatees). DNA evidence supports this theory, and modern hyraxes share features with elephants such as toenails, excellent hearing, sensitive pads on their feet, small tusks, good memory, high brain functions compared to other similar mammals, and the shape of some of their bones ... They retain a number of early mammal characteristics; e.g. they have poorly developed internal temperature regulation (which they deal with by huddling together for warmth, and by basking in the sun like reptiles)." (Wikipedia)