Is a hippopotamus a hippopotamus? or just a really cool oppotamus?
98962
It must be just a hippopotamus as evidenced by the fact that there are no uncool oppotamuses (oppotami?). One could argue that perhaps there is no such thing as an uncool oppotamus, but then there would be no need to make the distinction (i.e. all oppotami would be hippoppotami.)\n\nCool question, which I have given way too much thought to. LOL
503839
My dad used to work at a planetarium and in the gift shop they claimed to sell aquatic "dinosaurs". They were in fact really weird trilobite things. One of them outlived all the others and was like 3 inches long. It was the creepiest thing I ever saw. Maybe they should start mass marketing those instead of the Sea Monkeys. They're far more impressive.
788917
Have a look at the limbs of a lizard.  Not too unlike ours - has all the same sections in the same places.  Some even have five "fingers".  \n\nWhen mammals came along they took the format much further - creating ungulates with two toes, horses with one, dogs with four and a dew claw.  \n\nEven whales have the skeletal bones of hands in their pectoral fins.  \n\nLemurs are supposedly more primitive than monkeys and apes, but go see them at a zoo.  I was lucky enough to hand feed one, and it has hands remarkably like a tiny human.  It was unreal.  \n\nThe format has changed constantly, built on a vertibrate format developed initially by fish.
21138
Believe it or not, the hippopotamus's closest living relatives on Earth are the whales. \n\nThe exact evolutionary path isn't known, but the ancestor of both whales and hippopotami was definitely a land animal, might have been comfortable in water, and was probably quite a bit more similar to a modern hippo than to a modern whale.\n\nI'll go beyond the scientific evidence for a moment to say that it's not that hard to imagine...  Think of a hippo-like species (already partly aquatic, with  only nostrils and eyes above the water most of the time) evolving to spend more and more time in the water.  Eventually there's no more need for land at all, but there's still a need for air...
724046
no such - the phrase can be found as - advanced mammal like reptile or advanced mammal studies\n\nbut since it is homework then your teacher is probably looking for something like HUMAN as in an advanced ( on an evolutionary scale ) mammal ( teachers can be wrong too )
479881
I looked it up and it said that Hippos kill more humans than any other animal. That's interesting, right?
418542
Pterosaurs do indeed rock.\n\nBut my favorite Mesozoic creatures are the ammonites.  I love those shells with their complicated septa (dividers) inside!  So beautiful, so mysterious.\n\nWhy are they extinct?  WHY?  *sniff*\n\nI'm also fond of a reptile (like the pterandons, not a dinosaur) called Longisquamus.  I just like to say Longisquamus.  It's neat!  It's got huge... somethings sticking out of it's back.  We don't really know what, skin flaps maybe.  It looks weird, what more do you want out of an extinct animal?  :-)
454001
you got zebrinny(offspring of male horse and female zebra),zebrule(hybrid offspring of male zebra and female horse)zebu(ox with hump and dewlap)zemni(blind mole rat)zho(cross between yak and a cow),zizel(chipmunk)zonure(small south african lizard)zosterops(a small tropical bird)zumbador(south african humming bird).it was real learning for me too...answering this question..after listing all this i began thinking if getting all this was a kind of zoosophy or zoomania!!
594633
I liked this quirky little guy in prep school intrigued with animals, reptiles and insects. He would walk around the compound during recess catching lizards and cockroaches, barely socializing with the other kids around him. I liked him tremendously! I know it sounds a tad unlikely considering his 'unusual' pastime. But, when I think about it, I've always been attracted to the unusual...that's just me I guess haha :D
353741
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia   :)
653621
I totally believe in Unicorns. I mean, how far fetched is the idea? They are just like horses with a horn on their head. If Apes can turn into humans over time, why can unicorns not loose their horns and evolve into Horses.\nHaving said that there must be some still around.\nI cant prove they exist/existed but i am a beliver in saying that , unless it can be disproved, then keep on believing.
237764
Hippo. They are immensely strong and powerfull. When males are fighting they use their huge teeth (longer than a 12")and impressive bulk, its hard to imagine what a grizzly could do with his comparatively puny canines and meager body
160576
I suppose all eutherian mammals should be considered higher, (excluding metatherian and protherian). Any other division would be very skewed ,a hypothetical elephant looking for higher mammals would view evoloutionary history in terms of proboscitude ;pthus considering all mammals with larger noses then average as 'higher'
545087
I think you are right. Tazmanian devils are funny little things. I also get a good laugh from hedgehogs. But I think the weirdest looking animal has to be the anteater!!! :-)
831259
You have got to be kidding me. I have a favorite 'prehistoric water-dwelling animal'? I believe in a young earth anyway, so they're not prehistoric. I guess maybe Leviathan.
1012390
Okapi - they are related to the giraffe actually!  (they have those skin covered horns in males, and an extendable tongue, as well as similar teeth).
740157
In the West, we're pretty cynical. We don't believe anything until it's shown to us: hence theories of dinosaurs were laughed at until bones were first turfed up in the 19th Century. Other examples: the komodo dragon, the seahorse, the blue whale, the dodo, the protozoa (tiny microscopic organism), the elephant, the narwhal, the white rhino, the moose, the platypus...the list is endless. And there are still loads of animals we think are myths that may be de-mythed in the future: the yeti, the bunyip, the Loch Ness Monster, the unicorn...