10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2021

No, Madagascar is the most famous for an endemic group of mammals: lemurs, sifakas, indri, aye-aye – in total, 112 endemic species and subspecies of lemurs alone! Still, there should be no problem with larger species that allow for longer observation time (e.g. Larger species, that is, excluding dolphins and whales.

Madagascar 264

Madagascar Mammals Lemurs Seychelles 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2014

Whales are cows. In other words, the group of mammals that includes all the monkeys, which is rather large (and not accurately defined because I’ve not said what a “monkey” is … am I including lemurs?) The point is, of course, that whales are not cows. You should have said whales. Even though whales are cows.

Camels 248

Camels Whales Whaling Apes 248

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2018

There are important details within that dictum that we will ignore here, but this has to do with knowing when a characteristic doesn’t really tell you about the relative position of species on a “tree of life” vs when the characteristic works for that purpose. Rather, cladistics is a way of looking at the process of evolution of species.

Monkeys 192

Monkeys Gorillas Whaling Whales 192