00:00In the animal kingdom, sometimes it's easy to see that one animal is related to another animal.
00:05We can draw obvious similarities between the kangaroo and the wallaby.
00:08They both inhabit a similar environment, they both hop,
00:11and let's be honest, they kind of look the same.
00:14But today we're going to meet some unlikely animal relatives
00:18that look completely different, inhabit completely different environments,
00:21and can be found thousands of miles apart.
00:27Introducing our first contender, the manatee, a graceful and majestic gentle giant.
00:33You might be thinking that these marine mammals could be related to other marine mammals,
00:37like dolphins or sea lions.
00:39Well, guess again, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,
00:41because the closest living relatives to the manatees are actually land mammals.
00:46The elephant, the hyrax, and the manatee all share a common ancestor.
00:51At first glance, these animals couldn't seem more different.
00:55The hyrax is a small terrestrial mammal occupying areas of Africa and the Middle East.
01:00Elephants are the largest living land mammal inhabiting areas of Africa and Asia.
01:05And manatees are marine mammals living in the waters of Africa, the Amazon, and even North America.
01:11So let's look for some clues that might help us draw some similarities between these three mammals.
01:17Manatees have a prehensile upper lip, meaning that it's capable of grasping, just like the elephant's trunk.
01:24Manatees also have strong molars to help them grind up vegetation, just like the hyrax and the elephant.
01:30And take a look at the end of the manatee spins.
01:33They have four nails on each flipper, similar to the elephant's feet and the hyrax's paws.
01:41The hyrax also has two large incisors that grow out to be tiny tusks, just like the elephant.
01:48With all of these similarities in mind, it's easier to see how these three mammals shared a common ancestor,
01:54despite their obvious physical and distributional differences.
01:58But it certainly makes you look twice when you're exploring the world of unlikely animal relatives.
02:03Let's go.
02:03Let's go.
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