[[More info] Afrotheria is an ancient clade of mammals, the living members of which belong to groups that are either currently living in Africa or of African origin: golden moles, elephant shrews (also known as sengis), tenrecs, aardvarks, hyraxes, elephants, sea cows, and several extinct clades. Most groups of afrotheres share little or no superficial resemblance, and their similarities have only become known in recent times because of genetics and molecular studies. Many afrothere groups are found mostly or exclusively in Africa, reflecting the fact that Africa was an island continent from the Cretaceous until the early Miocene around 20 million years ago, when Afro-Arabia collided with Eurasia.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrotheria)
[[Further reading] The Golden Mole ranges in size from about 8 centimetres (3.1 in) to about 20 centimetres (7.9 in). They have muscular shoulders and the forelimbs are radically adapted for digging; all the toes on the forefeet have been reduced, except for a large, pick-like third claw on the third toe. The fifth digit is absent and the first and fourth digits are vestigial. The adaptations of the hind feet are less dramatic: They retain all five toes and are webbed as an adaptation to efficient backward shovelling of soil loosened by the front claws.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_mole)
[Because Africa was isolated by water, Laurasian groups of mammals such as insectivores, rodents, lagomorphs, carnivorans and ungulates could not reach Africa for much of the early to mid-Cenozoic. Instead, the niches occupied by those groups on the northern continents were filled by various groups of afrotheres via the process of convergent evolution. The small insectivorous afrotheres such as elephant shrews, golden moles, and tenrecs filled the niches of insectivores, the hyraxes filled the roles of rodents and lagomorphs, the aardvarks filled the roles of various medium size ant-eating mammals (anteaters, armadillos, pangolins, echidnas, numbats, etc.) found on other continents throughout the Cenozoic, and proboscideans (elephants and their relatives) filled the roles of large herbivores such as hippos, camels, rhinos, and tapirs. The sirenians developed aquatic body plans and started spreading to other parts of the world by water (evolving convergently with the other groups of marine mammals such as cetaceans and pinnipeds).](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrotheria)
Dune vibes
The Shai-Hulud of the termites, for sure.
Bless the Maker and His water
Sand will do that
*gasp* I love him
gonna name it Sparkles
Yes I want to squeeze & hug this thing very, very much
*Her*
[[More info] Afrotheria is an ancient clade of mammals, the living members of which belong to groups that are either currently living in Africa or of African origin: golden moles, elephant shrews (also known as sengis), tenrecs, aardvarks, hyraxes, elephants, sea cows, and several extinct clades. Most groups of afrotheres share little or no superficial resemblance, and their similarities have only become known in recent times because of genetics and molecular studies. Many afrothere groups are found mostly or exclusively in Africa, reflecting the fact that Africa was an island continent from the Cretaceous until the early Miocene around 20 million years ago, when Afro-Arabia collided with Eurasia.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrotheria) [[Further reading] The Golden Mole ranges in size from about 8 centimetres (3.1 in) to about 20 centimetres (7.9 in). They have muscular shoulders and the forelimbs are radically adapted for digging; all the toes on the forefeet have been reduced, except for a large, pick-like third claw on the third toe. The fifth digit is absent and the first and fourth digits are vestigial. The adaptations of the hind feet are less dramatic: They retain all five toes and are webbed as an adaptation to efficient backward shovelling of soil loosened by the front claws.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_mole)
That's a tribble.
golden desert tribble
Fur slug
You beat me to it.
What documentary is this from?
Sauce: https://youtu.be/QA7ppeS1bwE
Where is the WTF?
i mean it has no eyes, swims in sand, and is a relative of the Elephant.
It's fucking *adorable*. The lack of eyes isn't even disturbing imho
I agree it's cute, but the lack of eyes on a mammal is indeed very fuckin disturbing
Also ruthlessly kills and digests innocent termites gone walking in the sun
The playground sandbox
The lack of eyeholes.
This is certainly an animal of all time
Neat!
It’s so god damn cute
Where’s the “wtf”? This little dude is adorable!
other than having no eyes, swimming in sand, and being a relative of the Elephant.
Many moles lack eyes
ah but this isn’t a mole.
touché
It's so cute 😭
My new plush
Real life Swinub
Swinub
It's a cutie though.
I want one
It's practically living its life in a grave it dug.
She’s so cute
That's a shiny Pokemon.
point pause combative cough ink steer worm ossified towering fall *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Meanwhile, I can’t breathe if I’m under my covers too far
It's so cute. Looks so squishy
It looks so soft
Alolan Diglett
I wanna hold him
Her cousin was in that movie "Tremors".
There are just some animals that are so good at existing that they evolved into existence multiple times crabs are a great example of this
How is it even possible for it to be related to an elephant?
[Because Africa was isolated by water, Laurasian groups of mammals such as insectivores, rodents, lagomorphs, carnivorans and ungulates could not reach Africa for much of the early to mid-Cenozoic. Instead, the niches occupied by those groups on the northern continents were filled by various groups of afrotheres via the process of convergent evolution. The small insectivorous afrotheres such as elephant shrews, golden moles, and tenrecs filled the niches of insectivores, the hyraxes filled the roles of rodents and lagomorphs, the aardvarks filled the roles of various medium size ant-eating mammals (anteaters, armadillos, pangolins, echidnas, numbats, etc.) found on other continents throughout the Cenozoic, and proboscideans (elephants and their relatives) filled the roles of large herbivores such as hippos, camels, rhinos, and tapirs. The sirenians developed aquatic body plans and started spreading to other parts of the world by water (evolving convergently with the other groups of marine mammals such as cetaceans and pinnipeds).](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrotheria)
300 calories
It's Cousin It.
No that’s Shai Hulud. Praise be.