Animal Wonders of Evolution- 3

Sunda Pangolin

Covered in scales made of keratin, the material from which fingernails are made, pangolins split off from edentates — the order containing sloths, anteaters and armadillos — 60 million years ago. Any features they share with anteaters are the result of convergent evolution, with natural selection and adaptation arriving at similar traits in unrelated animals.
There are seven species of pangolin. One of the rarest is the Sunda pangolin. "When I first saw one, I was in Laos, on a boat. A woman put this bag in the boat. It was quite heavy. She said, I want $5 for it," said Baillie. "They're phenomenal creatures. Magical. Absolutely wonderful."
Image: Animal Concern Research & Education Society

Animal Wonders of Evolution- 4

Asian Tapir

Of the four species of tapir, the Asian Tapir most closely resembles those that lived 50 million years ago, at the root of an evolutionary branch that later sprouted horses and rhinoceros, their closest relative.
Their fleshy snouts, however, are believed to be a relatively recent adaptation.
Image: Suneko/Flickr.

Animal Wonders of Evolution- 5

Hispaniola Solenodon

"They are truly ugly creatures," said Baillie of the solenodons, a family of venomous, shrew-like insectivores that split 76 million years ago from all other mammals. Today there are two species: the Cuban Solenodon, found in Cuba, and the Hispaniola Solenodon, found in Haiti.
"They're part of a faunal group that evolved quite separately from both North and South America," Baillie said. "You had rodents the size of horses, a really unique animal mammal community. But with the colonization of those islands, most of those species disappeared. We're left with very few representatives."
Image: Wikimedia Commons

Animal Wonders of Evolution- 2

Kha-Nyou

Until biologists found several at a Laotian food market, Kha-Nyou — less prettily known as Laotian rock rats — were thought to have gone extinct 11 million years ago, along with the rest of their taxonomic family.
Genetic analyses show that they last shared a common ancestor with any living species 44 million years ago.
Image: Florida State University