Animals that look related but aren't.

One that I forgot in my previous list (now too late to edit): pheasants and lyrebird.

Also ibises and limpkin (and maybe curlews too). And an absolute classic: secretarybird and seriemas.

Grey-headed goose (Chloephaga poliocephala) resembles a bustard in many aspects of colour, pattern, shape and shize (except the webbed feet, of course). To the point that one of the common names that it receive in Spanish in Chile/Argentina is "avutarda", tat means bustard.
 
Maguari said:
You know what I always found interesting?

Maned Wolf and Marsh Deer.

Would love to know what's going on there. Is one mimicking the other? Or are those colours inherently beneficial in the pampas? Or is it just total coincidence?
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I find this really interesting too.

I think this could well be down to the phenomenon of "Thayers law" / countershading in nature.

The Pampas / Pantanal cat here in Brazil is another example of this colouration in a species that occupies this habitat. This feline also has roughly the same reddish / brownish coat and pitch black coloured legs.
 
Flamingos and spoonbills, if they count as looking related.

Also, falcons with other birds of prey.
 
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The olm and the Texas blind cave salamander look uncannily similar / related but actually aren't. An example of convergent evolution / parallelism.

Incidentally both are also listed as vulnerable by the IUCN due to similar threats.
 
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The Asian golden cat and African golden cat at first glance at least and superficially sort of resemble eachother in their physical build and the colouration and some of the markings of their fur.

The grisons and the ratel look very similar to me with their slow slung builds and colouration of fur.

The tayra sort of resembles some of the Eurasian martens.
 
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DesertRhino150 said:
The two mammals that I find appear to have a striking similarity to each other are the lowland paca (a rodent) and the water chevrotain (an ungulate).

I was interested in this and on looking it up, have found this scientific paper comparing the two species in pretty minute detail - looking at the external appearance of the body, osteology, anatomy, ecology and behaviour. It found that the average similarity between the two species was closer than average dissimilarity. The paper in question is included below; it is interesting to see a collation of water chevrotain behaviour, as much as anything else:
Convergence characteristics between a rodent, the South American lowland paca, and a ruminant, the African water chevrotain: An exemplary case study - ScienceDirect
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That is a good one and thank you for sharing this I'll have a read of this later.
 
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