We do not have a name for this lost species, or know much about where it lived prior to its journey south. However, we can tell that it existed because all of the small cats of South America are missing a pair of chromosomes found in every other species across the world - including the jaguars and pumas with which they share their continent. As confirmed by more detailed genetic analysis, this means that they all shared a single common ancestor in which this oddity first arose.
Synapsida
A random wander through the world of mammals
Sunday, 17 November 2024
Oncillas in the Highlands
Sunday, 10 November 2024
The Sounds of Mother and Calf
It's also important for many hoofed herd animals and, at least in the wild, few North American mammals are more sociable than the bison (Bison bison). While herds are no longer as vast as they were 200 years ago, recovery plans for the species are underway, and, in many cases, may rely on some degree of fencing or other containment at least for the time being. Understanding bison behaviour, including communication, could help with that, making it easier to assess how comfortable the animals are feeling - and, perhaps, the likelihood of a 750 kg (1,600 lb) bull deciding it's had quite enough of that fence and heading off somewhere it doesn't realise is less safe.
Sunday, 3 November 2024
Antilopine Antelopes: Dik-diks
Kirk's dik-dik |
Among the dwarf antelopes, we have the dik-diks.
While some researchers subdivide them further, four species of dik-dik are widely recognised, at least three of which are reasonably common within their respective homelands. This may partly be because they are too small to be worth hunting for meat - although, inevitably. this still happens from time to time.
Sunday, 27 October 2024
From Dragon to Cave Bear
Indeed, while naturalists continued describing such bones as belonging to fantastical animals into the 18th century, physician and rationalist Gregor Horst had beaten them to the punch, pointing out as early as 1656 that bones recovered from Unicorn Cave (yes, that is its actual name) looked remarkably like those of "bears, lions, and humans". Today, we can look at Paterson Hain's original illustrations and confirm that he had produced the first known published drawings of the bones of a cave bear.
Sunday, 20 October 2024
Moulting Marmots
Moulting is a feature of mammalian physiology that will be familiar to pet owners worldwide. While it's not present in all mammals, it is very widespread despite the fact that, when you think about it, it's obviously costly to the animal in question. Why shed and replace a large amount of hair in a short time when you could replace it bit by bit as humans do?
The fact that so many mammals, of widely different kinds, moult to at least some extent shows that it must be an evolutionary ancient phenomenon. In fact, it turns out that animals have probably been moulting since before they even had hair. We can tell this because it's not unique to mammals. For instance, birds moult their feathers, and the process is similar to hair moulting in mammals. More significantly, perhaps, moulting has the same underlying mechanisms as reptiles periodically shedding their skin and can be tied back to sloughing in fish and amphibians as well.
Sunday, 13 October 2024
You Scratch My Back...
Many mammal species live solitary lives, at least outside of the mating season. For those, there would be little opportunity for social grooming and no wider benefit to be gained from it if there was. Self-grooming or "autogrooming" - such as licking one's own fur - may well be sufficient for them. But, of course, primates are not the only social mammals, and many of those other animals have fur in which parasites could hide, so it's reasonable to ask if allogrooming really is unique to primates.
Sunday, 6 October 2024
Antilopine Antelopes: Dwarf Antelopes of Eastern and Central Africa
Oribi |
Technically, these dwarf antelopes were collectively referred to as "neotragines" and assumed to be a natural grouping within the antelopes more widely. Genetic analysis over the last couple of decades has muddied these waters considerably, not least because the genus for which the branch was named, Neotragus, turns out not to be closely related to the gazelles, and is something else entirely. Even if we look solely at those dwarf antelopes that we can still say belong to the antilopine subfamily, it turns out that they don't have a single common ancestor. Specifically, one of them is more closely related to gazelles than it is to any of the other members of its purported evolutionary branch.