Living fossils exposition

Canihelpyou?

Canihelpyou?

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
So i had this idea of making a part of a zoo to be featuring "living fossils". I think most of you know what i mean with this, but for the people who dont: with living fossils i mean animals that havent or just slitghly changed over Thousand or millions of years. Here comes my question tho. What animals would you consider for this exposition? For right now i have:
- Dough crab
- Lungfish
So not really a full species list. And i mean animals that can be kept in captivity, so no hoatzins or coelacanths.
 
Lampreys and/or hagfishes (perhaps with a special ugliness warning beside the hagfish tank ;)), sea pens, Peripatus or one of its relatives, gars, the bowfin, an American opossum of some sort and, if you could get some, solenodons. Ideally you would match them up with casts of fossils and models reconstructing the fossilised species to compare to living relations - with loads of facts to bash into the thick skulls of 'Creationists' :D
 
You might be interested to know that Leipzig has a corridor with living fossils in the entrance to Gondwanaland. The original inhabitants were Alligator gars, multiple Lungfish species, Bichir, Tinamu, Virginia possum, Kowai, Slender loris and Eastern quoll.
 
Canihelpyou? said:
Why capybaras if i may ask? They have changed allot over the years.
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Their genus hasn't evolutionary changed in anatomy since the Miocene period 12 million years ago. Also they and the rest of the rodent parvorder cavimorpha which includes agoutis, cavys, maras, and pacas date back to the Oligocene period.
 
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Old Emmen zoo had an astonishingly effective diorama-like exhibit. It was called 'Earth 400m years ago', and featured barren sandy shore and a pool with live horseshoe crabs.
 
Canihelpyou? said:
So i had this idea of making a part of a zoo to be featuring "living fossils". I think most of you know what i mean with this, but for the people who dont: with living fossils i mean animals that havent or just slitghly changed over Thousand or millions of years. Here comes my question tho. What animals would you consider for this exposition? For right now i have:
- Dough crab
- Lungfish
So not really a full species list. And i mean animals that can be kept in captivity, so no hoatzins or coelacanths.
Click to expand...

So, you basically can copy and paste my already tought living fossil exhibit. You can read it here:
ZooChat's First Community Zoo!
 
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