Can you distinguish these very similar animals?

Technically, a turtle IS a turtle – the latter is used as a generic term for over 200 species in the order Testudines, which include species of turtles, tortoises, and terrapins. The main difference is that turtles live on land and are not equipped for water, hence the reason they have feet and not fins. Turtles also tend to have dome shaped shells while most turtles have contoured shells for swimming.

These mammals are quite similar in temperament, intelligence, and habitat, but they have a few physical differences! For example, dolphins are longer and leaner; they have an elongated snout, a large mouth and a curved dorsal fin. Porpoises are generally larger, beakless, with a smaller mouth and a small triangular dorsal fin – some porpoises don’t even have a fin!

Seals and seal lions are both pinnipeds – a suborder that includes species of true seals, fur seals, sea lions, and walruses – but they belong to different families and therefore have different physical traits. . Sea lions are usually brown in color and can walk on dry land using their large fins. They also have visible ears unlike real seals which only have earholes. Real seals (as above) also have smaller fins and tend to squirm on their stomachs on dry land. Fur seals are much closer to sea lions in appearance, but they have much thicker fur, are slightly smaller, and have shorter noses than sea lions.

In fact, it’s a scarlet tiger moth! Moths and butterflies both belong to an incredibly diverse order called Lepidoptera. They are very similar and have a lot of overlapping physical features; the one thing most scientists agree on that is different about them is their antennae. Butterflies have club-shaped antennae often with a bulbous tip, while most moths have feathery or tapering. Additionally, when at rest, butterflies usually fold their wings together while butterflies rest them by their sides.

Hares, or hares, are classified in the same family as rabbits but have a few key differences. They are generally bigger and faster than rabbits, their legs are larger, and their black-tipped ears are slightly longer. Hares raise their young above the ground, so they are born with fur and can run almost immediately. Newborn rabbits are born blind without fur, so they are raised underground in burrows.

In fact, it is a honey bee, which remarkably resembles the most common genera of wasps – yellow jackets and hornets. However, bees have a small layer of fluffy hair on their upper body and are more rounded in shape, as opposed to the streamlined shape of the average predatory wasp.

These two animals are actually very different. Anteaters are of the order pilosa also including sloths, while aardvarks are the only living species in the order tubulidentata. The name anteater is sometimes colloquially applied to aardvarks due to their similar diet, but aardvarks are quite unique, having a pig-like muzzle, long ears, and constantly growing cylindrical-shaped teeth. Meanwhile, the anteaters are toothless, with an elongated skull and a huge bushy tail.

While it’s really hard to tell these two animals apart, they have some pretty simple differences. Mature llamas are much larger than their camelid cousins, have large curved ears, and their faces are longer and generally hairless. Alpacas have bushy, fluffy faces and triangular, stocky ears.

Even though they are both crocodilians, crocodiles generally have a set of longer, narrower, V-shaped jaws, while an alligator’s muzzle is larger and U-shaped. Another reliable indicator. to tell the difference between these cousins ​​is their teeth – a crocodile’s jaws are the same size, so their lower teeth visibly stand up and fit into their upper jaw when closed. For alligators, their upper jaw is wider than the lower jaw, so when they close their mouths, their lower teeth are hidden.

These speckled big cats are virtually impossible to separate visually, but there are some distinctions to be made. As well as inhabiting completely different continents, jaguars are actually bigger and bulkier than leopards, they have shorter tails, and most importantly, they have smaller spots inside the black rings of their fur. .

The famous honey badger and wolverine belong to the same family of mustelids (weasels) and are the only extant species of their respective species, but they are easy to distinguish. Wolverines are slightly larger with visible ears and a passing resemblance to bears, while the honey badger has rudimentary earholes and a flat black body with a broad white stripe defined along the length – although some subspecies do not have this distinct marking.

Although both are macropods (a taxonomic family of marsupials) and native to Australasia, a wallaby differs from a kangaroo in that it is many smaller. Within the Macropodidae family, a kangaroo is one of the four largest species (measuring up to 2 meters tall), and a wallaby is an umbrella term that covers just about everything else, including pademelons. and quokkas, but not wallaroos. A nimble wallaby, like above, will only grow up to a maximum of 80cm.

If you thought these names were synonymous with each other, you would be completely wrong! These nocturnal rodents are often kept as pets around the world, but hamsters are actually closer to voles and lemmings, while gerbils are more like mice and rats. You can tell them apart by the fact that hamsters are larger, as opposed to gerbils which are longer, with a pointed nose and tail visible like a rat.

Both emus and ostriches belong to the ratite group of flightless birds, but they actually belong to separate taxonomic orders and therefore are quite different. People always mix them up, but one key difference is that ostriches can grow up to 3 meters tall while emus reach 2 meters. Another key distinction is that emus have three toes and ostriches only have two.

It is actually an emerald boa. I will forgive you if you got it wrong as these guys are very hard to tell apart; in fact, pythons were once classified in the boidae (boa) family! In addition to living on mutually exclusive continents, boas have fewer bones in their heads and fewer teeth than a python. Pythons are also on average larger than boas, but both animals are considered raw because they haven’t evolved much in a long time.

The echidna is a wonderfully strange creature that is often confused with its rodent doppelgänger the porcupine, but in truth they are quite separate creatures and the only superficial similarity is their thorns. Echidnas are much smaller laying mammals (monotremes) similar to the platypus – in fact, these two are the only monotremes, all other mammals give birth to live young. Unlike the porcupine, they are toothless, have no nipples, and male echidnas even have a weird four-headed penis!