Hyrax

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 Procavia Heterohyrax Dendrohyrax

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A hyrax is any of about 11 species of fairly small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. They live in Africa and the Middle East. Despite the unexceptional appearance of modern hyraxes, the order has a remarkable prehistoric lineage and hyraxes may be the closest living relatives of the elephant.

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Hyraxes are short-legged, well-furred, rotund creatures with a mere stump for a tail. They are about the size of a domestic cat; most measure between 30 and about 70 cm long and weigh between 2 and 5 kg. From a distance and with a little imagination, a hyrax could be mistaken for a very well-fed rabbit—indeed, early Phoenician navigators mistook the rabbits of the Iberian Peninsula for hyraxes (Hebrew Shapan); hence they named it I-Shapan-im, meaning "land of the hyraxes", which became to the Latin word "Hispania", the root of Spains modern Spanish name Espa?a and the English name Spain. Also, most of the rabbits mentioned in English Bible translations were actually hyraxes, as early translators could not come up with a specific word for these animals, which were unknown in Europe at that time.

Species: In biology, the most commonly used definition of species was first coined by Ernst Mayr. Species are "groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations which are reproductively isolated from other such groups" (however, see other definitions of species below)....

Order: Order (from Latin ordo "row, rank, series, arrangement", Old French ordre from the Latin accusative, ordinem, attested in English from the 1220s). The word conveys a notion of "a system of parts subject to certain uniform, established ranks or proportions", an idea very central to scholastic thoug...

Africa: Africa is the world's second-largest continent and second most populous after Asia. At about 30,244,050 km² (11,677,240 mi²) including its adjacent islands, it covers 20.3 percent of the total land area on Earth. With over 800 million human inhabitants in 54 countries, it accounts for abou...

Hyrax related Images and Photos (experimental)

Bush Hyrax Heterohyrax Brucei Kenya Africa

The Dassie or Hyrax Capensis