Day 731: July 10th, 2021. Elephants are the largest living land animals, but they don't have many close relatives left. Manatees and dugongs are just a few that remain, but one of the most common ones are hyraxes. . For those that may not know what a hyrax is - though the name sounds like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, they are real. Comparative to North American squirrels in terms of how common they are, hyraxes are found throughout a large part of Africa. With an appearance close to an oversized guinea pig and not getting over 13 pounds, it's hard to imagine the critters sharing a (relatively) close ancestor with something as big as an elephant. It's hard to put the two together on the surface, but by looking at skull structure, teeth, and toes - the similarities become more clear. Plus, as their incisor teeth grow, they start to resemble miniature tusks! . . Read more about the rock hyrax: https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/rock-hyrax . Graphic shows a rock hyrax. The factoid reads: "Hyraxes are one of the closest living relatives to elephants." . . #hyrax #elephants #elephantrelatives #largestanimals #evolution #conservation #animalfacts #animalart #africananimals #africaconservation #pixelplanet #pixelplanettoday #pixelart #planetfacts . . ON A SPECIAL NOTE: The 2nd anniversary of the project is tomorrow! 😄❤ We got some special things in store, so make sure to be on the lookout for the celebration post tomorrow! You can also subscribe to our newsletter ( https://www.pixelplanettoday.com/#newsletter ), which will come out on Monday detailing the whole ordeal as well as have some goodies of its own. 😊