Certain animals have such features which tends to lead us into thinking that they are the relatives of this species. But, in reality they belong to other species in other way i.e. by order, sub-order etc. though not by their actual family. This post will reveal about such species.

One of the planet’s weirdest animals, tapirs have such bizarre features that we get confused whether they are pigs (by their body) or elephants (by their elongated snout). But, in reality they are neither pigs nor elephants. Like rhinos, their closest relatives are horses by their biological order i.e. Perrisodactyla (Odd-toed ungulates)which contain horses, zebras, donkeys, rhinos and tapirs. It would sound awkward as they do not resemble horses in any way.

As it is known that hyenas are the one of the eminent scavengers of the animal kingdom. We would tend to think they share a close relation to dogs. Surprisingly, their closest relatives are mongooses and civets by their sub-order

We would believe that there are no closest living relatives of elephants. But, unbelievably there are. Yes, tapirs don’t belong to this clan. Two of them are smaller than us. And, the other is a large aquatic creature. Hyraxes (small herbivores resembling rodents) share a very close connection to elephants by their clad. Similarly, another animal called elephant shrew

Now, two more examples of bizarre connections. The first example is about big cat species which are tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard. Leave aside cat family. Lets go by sub-family now. Seven years back, a research has been conducted on them about their relations to each other. Researchers conducted the genetic analysis of these species. The results baffled them like anything. It had revealed that these species are related to each other in a totally different way. Their findings state that tigers are more closely related to snow leopards. Lions share a very close relation to leopards and jaguars. Its indeed a mind-blowing revelation done by these researchers.

Sirenians which consist of slow- moving aquatic mammals like manatees, dugongs too have a close connection to elephants than to pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and walruses). It is too weird to hear about elephant’s closest relatives.

It is clear now as who are the closest living relatives of the above animals.