#hippos and whales are relatives

[shipperwithnomister]

HIPPOS CANT SWIM

[calp0sa]

can you be my parental figure you're very kind you remind me of a blue whale like a gentle giant i don't know how tall you are but you remind me of a whale i love whales whales are kind did you know that bats have belly buttons i really like bats im autistic i like animals hello hai hai hai hai ur cool hello :]

whale hello there i am everyone’s uncle and grandpa and i am also a blue whale in real life so that checks out. i love whales too, SOOOOOO MUCH; they are my favorite mammal :] … and they have belly buttons as well. and they are very close relatives with hippos. and they have vestigial finger bones in their flippers. and Ok i am going to get ahead of myself telling a thousand whale facts but anyway you have a lovely sunday

[princefluph]

i kno this isnt a dino but,, can u draw pakicetus??

Yet another one of my favorites. Have a father taking the kiddos on their first hunt. The closest living relatives to this creature are whales and hippos. For those who didnt know, whales, dolphins, and porpoises are all even toed undulates meaning theyre related to deer and giraffe. I really love this silly otter hippo whale. The evolutionary process of whales was always such a fun and informative deep dive.

[irradiatedsnakes]

hiiii i love your art, your furry character designs are Godly, so I figured you'd be a good person to ask for this: if you were designing a fursona character that was a dolphin, what kinda feet/hands would you do? pawbs? lizard limbs? hooves perhaps? (i think i'd seen smth like that before but idk)

hi thank youuuu!!

id go for feet like their closest be-footed relatives! cetaceans are even-toed ungulates- like your cows and deer and such, and their closest living relatives are hippos.

unlike most ungulates, the hippo and whale branch don’t really have hooves per se? they have funky feet with hoofy toenails. here’s a pic of pakicetus, one of the earliest proto-whales:

that said, im also very much a fan of anthro cetacean designs that give them more traditionally artiodactyly cloven hooves, like a deer or pig.

[swimmingferret]

okay but like, what types are we judging here? Pygmy hippos vs African elephants? Or just Indian elephants? Or Bush elephants which are the largest? White rhinos or sumatran? since there is quite a big size difference in which sub-species we're talking here.

Cause there's different hippo types and very varying size

With the pygmy being the size of a large dog.

And then there's elephants, with the smallest being the pygmy elephant which a hippo could fight

and there was the extinct dwarf elephant which was nearly the size of a pygmy hippo

If it was those two smallest then I think a polar bear could kill them

Rhinos could also count, depending on which one is specified and depending on what elephant and hippo type it would be fighting

idk poll options are very unclear as to what type, since only Polar Bear is standalone as a species. All the others have variants.

[thegnomelord]

Funny idea for your omegaverse post. Blue whale shifter reader. Since hippos are the closest living relatives to Whales and since blue whales are prey animals to both orcas and humans.

Ok yeah that is funny af but idk how well that would work in a military setting since you'd need to have access to the deep ocean to shift and a whale isn't exactly subtle

[makairodonx]

45 million years ago in the Eocene of what is now Inner Mongolia’s Irdin Manha Formation, a lone Andrewsarchus mongoliensis rests and yawns by the side of a small lake as a flock of small birds arrive to peck on the small ticks that hide around the huge mammal’s hair and bite at its skin.

With an 83 cm-long skull and a body length of 2.8-3 meters, Andrewsarchus was one of the largest Cetancodontomorph mammals of the Eocene, and a close relative of the Entelodonts, Hippos and whales despite its physical resemblance to the wolf-like Mesonychids, which come from a separate branch of the Artiodactyla.

This is also the 100th anniversary of the creature’s description by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1924!

[elspethdixon]

Apparently one of my sister’s coworkers has found Jesus, and is now incapable of talking about anything else.

All I can think is, “I don’t go around telling everyone at work about how I’ve found Tony Stark or the evolutionary history of whales or erotic gay Transformers fanfiction. Where do people whose special interests are Jesus and/or their intermittent fasting paleo-vegan raw keto diet get this confidence?”

If Susan from accounting can say she’s praying for you I should be allowed to deliver a monologue about how whales evolved from artiodactyl ancestors and are the closest living relatives of hippos. And yet I restrain myself.

[revretch]

Whales make more sense when you learn their closest living relatives are hippos, but then you have to come to terms with hippos being hoofed mammals and not related to elephants

[sigmaleph]

there is a clade called whippomorpha, where the 'whippo' bit is a portmanteau of whale and hippo. because it contains whales and hippos.

there is a different clade called hippomorpha, which does not contain hippos (it contains horses and horse relatives)

[katborg82]

On the ancient shores of Pakistan, two male Makaracetus fight for dominance. Makaracetus (Makara Whale, named after an elephant-headed sea monster from hindu mythology) was a unique protocetid from the middle Eocene, unique enough to be classified under its own subfamily, Makaracetinae. Like the other protocetids, Makaracetus was a semi-aquatic mammal with a whale-like body, and thick webbed feet better for swimming than for walking. Unlike its relatives however, Makaracetus had a rather strange snout. Originally it was believed it had a small trunk like an elephant or tapir, but further studies revealed it more likely had a sort of bulbous nose like a hippo or a manatee.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

An issue I see with spreading awareness of pterosaurs not being dinosaurs is that people overcorrect. Pterosaurs may not be dinosaurs (just like troodonts are not dromaeosaurs), but they are also stem-birds, and the major clade most closely related to dinosaurs. I've seen plenty of people insist they are "just reptiles far removed from dinosaurs", or "archosaurs, like crocs and dinosaurs". Archosaurs are crocs and birds, and pterosaurs are stem-birds, like every non-neornithean dinosaur. The least serious dinosaur mislabel IMO (unless we count Saltopus or other Triassic dinosauromorps), so focus should be made on them being close to (but not) dinosaurs. "Pterosaurs are relatives of dinosaurs" like, I dunno, "hippos are relatives of whales".

Yeah I'd agree with that. pterosaurs are close to being dinosaurs, but not quite. and that's a relevant thing

I think if we emphasize the dinosaur hip structure more, which seems to be the main characteristic of the group, that might help. Pterosaurs don't have open acetabulums (afaik. henry, if I'm wrong, I'm sorry). Dinosaurs do. Birds also do, and they're dinosaurs.

not that trait based classification is good or anything, but in this situation it works

[vees-strangeworld-omniverse]

ARGONUS FAUNA: beast of sonias

(NOTE: descriptions copy-pasted from DA where i normally/originally post my works. any context that is missing here on tumblr can be found on my DA [linked here and on pinned post] )

[additional note: much of the first several post on argous's fauna use a human to scale instead of an E-class aircraft like i would end up doing later on. thus, animal's actual size relative to their world will be smaller. a bonus note to make is that this human perspective also includes names of the animals, so i'll be giving out alternate names and/or some explanation....]

so now we head over to the asia of argonus, aka sonias.

not unlike our asia, and also like other parts of the world, sonias has some interesting and unique fauna. not surprisingly (especially with these guys i drew), most of these weird wonders come from the jungles where diversity is at it's fullest. actually, alongside arid biomes, tropical climates are a hotspot for some of the "living fossils" of argonus...for some reason...

pantheronager -5ft at hips -dichobunoid ungulate -rainforest of KO laos (kingdom of laos)

    looking like the hybrid between a deer, horse and cat, pantheronagers are neither those three and are instead a "cat-sized" dichobunoid, an ancient group of ungulates more closer to whales and hippos. the surviving dichobunoids that exist in the sonian tropics aren't too different from their ancient relatives in terms of looks and behaviors, and the panteronager is no exception     typical of it's relatives, they're fleet-footed browsers that feed mostly on the foliage and fallen fruit within the forest floor. males are solitary most of the time (excluding mating season), while the females live in small groups of 2-4 with one of them being the alpha. however, unlike other species of surviving dichobunoid, they (alongside the other members of it's genus) have horns and tusks, two pairs each in true argonian fashion. both males and female have them; males use them to fight other males over territory and mates, females use them similarly to establish the pecking order, and both also use them a protection if cornered. every season, males will find a harem and mate with all the females, then leave once the fawns are born.     the panthonagars have been kept in captivity for quite a while. they're rather infamous in the pet trade, due to their high reproductive rates (females can have 2-3 fawns every 3 months) and rather surprising adaptability. this has lead them to become introduced into other tropical climates in cities and towns, though their saving grace from becoming completely destructive are the equally abundant introduced/adaptive predators , especially the stunnits and avibels aeronoids.

olmraptor -8ft tall -dromaeosaurid -forests of center kingdom.

    there are lots of "living fossils" with dinosaurs being no exception. this is probably because the kpg extinction event wasn't exactly like our own. instead of one big asteroid killing off the dinosaurs, a mixture of volcanic activity and a tiny dash of climate change had the Mesozoic reptiles start to fizzle out in the beginning of the Paleocene, leaving behind only the lucky ones that were adaptable enough to survive the changes. one of these lucky archosaurs to make it to the modern Holocene were the dromaeosaurids, more specifically the "Asiatic" members of velociraptorinae. such is the case with the olmraptor, a forest-dwelling descendant of those velociraptors.     the olmraptor, like all other non-avian/pterosaur archosaurs, have a line of spikes going down their backs. they're solitary hunters, preferring to catch small prey like rodents, invertebrates, lizards and birds. although diurnal, they're most active during the brighter hours of dusk and dawn. the male and female mate for life and, despite their solitary lifestyle, have their territories overlapping each other. every year, the male's coat becomes brightly colored, and they begin to start their collection of flowers and bones. when the male first starts this display, the collection starts in a small, shallow pile of grass and twigs. if he's lucky and manages to successfully gain the love of a female, they'll make that display pile into a nest and he'll use it every year to renew their love. both parent incubate the eggs, with the female doing most of the incubating as the male either gathers food or defends the female. when the babies hatch, they're almost fully developed and are able to start walking within their first hour of their life. once able to walk, both parents and offspring leave the nest where the babies are taught how to survive on their own. next season, they'll come back to that nest to start the process all over again.     like the pantheronager, they're kept as pets and are infamous for their high reproduction and adaptability. however, they are at least a little helpful in hunting and eating unwanted pest. olmraptors in the western hemisphere (especially amerigia) are popular in places like parks, country clubs and gated communities for their colors and pest control.

onisuchus -49ft long -crocodilian, converging onto kaprosuchus -tropical wetlands of indus     sometimes what seems to be a living fossil is actually just an animal converging onto a similar build to prehistoric animal. modern crocodilians are sometimes considered living fossils, given how alot of them haven't changed in the 100 millions of years being here. in some funny twist, most of the seemingly "mesozoic survivors" crocodilians aren't really that and are instead just a case of convergent evolution, such as the case with the onisuchus.     the onisuchus is a massive carnivore who's claim to fame is it's kaprosuchus-like looks and it's voracious appetite. they'll eat practically any animal they see fit for a meal, dead or alive. they're just as good swimmers as they are runner, and can run in short burst of speed to catch prey. they even have a body count; about 150 people per year, mostly humans and smaller elkinets, have their lives taken by this gluttonous archosaur. however, not everything is doom and gloom for the onisuchus; like all other surviving crocodilians they're great mothers that protect their young and move them away from danger (mostly other onisuchus). at least 2/3rds of all onisuchus-related deaths are due to people being unaware of a mother onisuchus's presence, or even the babies since they hang around dense foliage to further be protected. when the mother spots the threat, she'll not only kill the animal (or person), but also will ensure that the carcass wont attract other predators by eating their dead body. still, even with all these protective measures, lost of predator's still manage to steal her babies, and only 3 out of 10 of her babies will make it to adulthood.

striped tapir -13ft tall -tapiridae -tropics of southern sonias

    one of the very rare instances of an argonian species replacing an earth's species entirely, the striped tapir (aka baku to many humans) was though to be some kind of extreme argonian variation of the Malayan tapir, when in fact they're a completely different species that replaces the Malayan tapir entirely. like alot of perissodactyls, they have a semi-long tail, with the long hair making up a third of it's length. and, like most other tapir species on argonus, they also have tiny, little tusks on their mouths.     the behavior is not too different from other tapir species. they're mostly solitary, eats leaves and shoots, most active at night, and can be considerably dangerous when cornered (though the prefer to run first). 

if the tapir's ears look a bit weird, that's because i accidentally gave it two ears instead of four and didn't notice until i was typing this. so, i used mspaint as a makeshift photoshop and it surprisingly worked.

also, fun fact, the male olmraptor's colors are based off of the mononykus reconstruction from the weird & wild creature cards.

[riverofmolecules]

i queued a video of an aardvark but!! it led me to read more about afrotheria, including how a few species including aardvarks, elephants, elephant shrews, and manatees are a group of animals unique to africa, having evolved there while africa was separate from eurasia

meaning manatees are the cousins of elephants that wandered into the ocean

but also there may be a bigger group of connections between afrotheria and american species from when africa and the americas were one big continent

so of course, i looked up hippos because they seem super african to me, but apparently, hippos' ancestor migrated to africa from asia, and their closest relatives now are cetaceans (whales and dolphins). their ancestor was just a mammal that loved water!! and some of them went into the sea permanently (goals) and others decided to stay semiaquatic.

[4d-hypermoth]

The best scientific name for an animal clade I've come across is without a doubt Whippomorpha.

Biologists needed a name for the group within Artiodactyla that includes the whales & dolphins + their closest relatives, the hippos.

Whale. Hippo. Whippo. Whippomorpha.

Yeh

[throwing-roses-into-the-abyss]

btw now that orcas are getting a lot of attention (rightfully) I see a lot of discourse again about how orcas aren't dolphins or whatever, SO, just one more time:

orcas are dolphins. dolphins are whales. so orcas are, in fact, both dolphins and also whales. specifically they're a toothed whale in the dolphin family. and also orcas are not just one species but actually a bunch of ecotypes that should by now have been classified as separate species.

plus a small Fun Fact: their closest on-land relative is the hippo.