Animal of the Day: Viscacha

Today's Animal of the Day is the viscacha and, in my opinion, the viscacha is one of the cutest animals in the world!  There are five species of extant (still living, opposite of extinct) viscacha, composing two genera.  The viscachas live in the South American Andes, with one species, the plains viscacha, inhabiting the Pampas of Argentina.  The plains viscacha can apparently live in warrens (groups of interconnected burrows) of up to around one hundred individuals!  

Now what exactly is the viscacha, anyways?  Except for the long tail, it sure looks like a rabbit, now, doesn't it?  Well, the rabbit-like features of the viscacha actually evolved through a fascinating biological process called convergent evolution, in which organisms evolve a similar adaptation to other organisms, but did not receive the adaptation from a common ancestor.  For example, the antlers of the elk and the moose are not an example of convergent evolution, as the common ancestor of the two animals both had antlers.  

However, the saber-teeth in the Chinese water deer and the musk deer DID evolve via convergent evolution, as their common ancestor did not have these features.  And yes, that picture of the Chinese water deer to the right is a real picture.  We'll talk about these fascinating animals at some point in the future.  

Tangents aside, I never actually answered the question: what are the viscachas related to, if not rabbits?  Rabbits, along with hares and pikas, are members of the order Lagomorpha, or the lagomorphs, contrary to the belief of many people, who (understandably) think that the rabbits are actually rodents.  If you were to say that the viscacha was a rodent, however, then you would be correct!  The viscacha is indeed a member of the order Rodentia, and are fairly closely related to the chinchillas, one of which is pictured off to the left.  The chinchillas, just like the viscachas, are also native to the South American Andes.  The chinchillas, despite being a very popular pet (I remember my preschool had one when I went there), are not doing too hot in the wild: both extant species, the short- and long-tailed chinchilla, are labeled as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN.  

This was the birthday post of Isabel Lippincott! Happy birthday, Isabel! If you have a birthday coming up, just email me the date at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com with the date and your favorite animals, and I will do my best to get a post in! And if you like what you are reading, please feel free to follow us here or via Facebook!

Animal of the Day: Coelophysis

Today's Animal of the Day is Coelophysis!  The picture of the cast you see off to the left (taken by me at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show a few months back) is from the AMNH (American Museum of Natural History) in New York.  I actually know a little bit more about this particular specimen of Coelophysis than I believe was labeled there, as I remembered seeing this specimen in my Dinosaur Atlas book from DK Publishers.  One of around 500 or so individual Coelophysis specimens discovered at a place called Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, this particular specimen was once thought to reveal something interesting about the species: Coelophysis was once thought to probably be a cannibal, as the remains of a baby Coelophysis were found in the area of the stomach!

Dinosaur cannibalism is not unheard of, and almost certainly occurred in the Late Cretaceous Abelisaur Majungasaurus from Madagascar.  However, this was disproven in 2002 by Rob Gay, when he showed that the baby Coelophysis were either crushed by the smaller ones, or that they weren't even baby Coelophysis!  Instead, many of them were found to be other, small reptiles, such as the archosaur Hesperosuchus, a member of the same group as the crocodilians, dinosaurs, and pterosaurs, amongst others.  So for now, it looks like Coelophysis was probably not a cannibal, but future discoveries may force us to change our minds once again!

Another picture of Coelophysis that I took, at the DMNS

Coelophysis is one of the oldest known dinosaurs, inhabiting North America around 220 million years ago (MYA), during the Late Triassic Period.  The site at Ghost Ranch is interesting, because there are just so many different specimens all clumped together.  Some paleontologists have suggested that a flash flood drowned a huge herd of these animals, or perhaps that they died while trying to cross a river.  We might never know what, exactly, killed these dinosaurs, or why so many of them died in such close proximity.  

Animal of the Day: Addax

The Addax (Addax nasomaculatus) sometime called the screwhorn antelope, is a "Critically Endangered" member of the group of animals known collectively as the antelope.  The addax is found in the Sahara desert.  The Addax has been extirpated, or made regionally extinct, in the countries of Egypt, Algeria, Western Sahara, and Sudan.  Nowadays, the Addax can only be naturally found in the countries of Chad,  Niger, Mauritania, and has been reintroduced into Morocco and Tunisia.  The Addax has earned its "Critically Endangered" status due to the immense and very frequent hunting of its horns, and is still often hunted on game reserves in the United States.  The meat and leather obtained from the Addax are also highly prized.  Their diet consists of primarily grass, as well as the leaves of various shrubs.  Rarely drinking, they instead gain most of their moisture through the plants that they eat.  The Addax is a slow moving animal, leaving it vulnerable to attacks from cheetahs, leopards, lions, African wild dogs, and humans.  The calves can also be killed by servals, caracals and hyenas.

There is also a Spanish motorsport team named the Barwa Addax Team, but I was unable to ascertain whether this team was named after the animal or not!
 

Animal of the Day: Beira Antelope

The Beira Antelope (Dorcatragus megalotis) is a small, 1.5 to two foot tall (at the shoulder) antelope that is native to the arid and mountainous regions of Djibouti, Somalia, and eastern Ethiopia.  The males have straight, short horns, and they are currently listed as "Vulnerable" by the IUCN.  The captive breeding program in Qatar, at the Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation center, reached its height in 2005 when it had 58 Beira Antelope.  The center has around 2,000 animals, including gerenuk, Somali wildass, sand cats, and cheetahs.  According to their posters on their website, they also have other felines, including the African wildcat, the caracal, the jungle cat, and even a king cheetah, which is a melanistic form of the regular cheetah.  As well as having many different types of felines, they do have lots of ungulates, as well as many types of birds, and some reptiles to boot.

HERE is the page on the Beira Antelope from the Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation center's website.

Animal of the Day: The Axolotl

The axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) is a fascinating little amphibian.  This salamander, closely related to the much more normal-looking tiger salamander, is unfortunately labeled as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN, due to destruction of its native habitat.  The axolotl is endemic to two lakes in central Mexico, Lake Xochimilco (pronounced SHO-chan-ha-nay-shanay) and Lake Chalco.  Lake Chalco, however, is no more, as it was drained by humans to avoid flooding.  Lake Xochimilco, on the other hand, is still around, but merely a shadow of its past, now reduced to

a number of canals.  They are further threatened by the growth of Mexico City.  The axolotl is able to regenerate its limbs, a fact which has not gone unnoticed to scientists, prompting many to employ their use as "lab axolotls," if you will. 

Apparently, there are two Pokémon created as a tribute to the axolotl: wooper, and mudkip.  Wooper looks to me to be very similar to the axolotl, at least superficially, while mudkip I would now have guessed at, unless I had read it on the Pokémon wiki page.  Amusingly, the page is called "On the Origin of Species," presumably a reference to the book by the same title written by Charles Darwin.  The link is included below, just in case you want to learn more about either the Pokémon things, or even the axolotl.

On The Origin of Species: Wooper

Animal of the Day: Rusty-Spotted Cat

The Rusty-spotted cat (Prionailurus rubiginosus), found only in Sri Lanka and India, and is the smallest member of the cat family.  The IUCN has the Rusty-spotted cat listed as "Vulnerable" since 2002, and according to a study taken in 2007, it is suspected that fewer than 10,000 mature individuals remain in the wild.  These numbers are in continuous loss due to habitat loss and hunting for the cat's pelt.  However, they have been observed with increasing frequency, sometimes even appearing nearby and within villages, although in other parts of the cat's range it is glimpsed with increasing rarity.  They tend to occupy moist and dry deciduous forests as well as scrub and grassland, and do not appear in the evergreen forests of India.