Life Finds a Way …13 Creatures That Didn’t Exist 100 Years Ago

Life finds a way…that’s a quote from the movie, Jurassic Park.The scientists from Colossal want to bring back extinct animals like the dire wolf. Someone from Animal Planet wrote a cautionary post so fascinating I had to write about it too.

                 The Link: https://www.rindabeach.com/blog/game-of-thrones-are-dire-wolves-back
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I just found a post from Animals Around the Globe that makes that quote even more true. Here are 13 creatures that now exist because somehow, life found a way.

                                                That link: 13 Creatures That Did Not Exist 100 Years Ago
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                                                                                               #1. The Coywolf
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Would you believe it’s a cross between a coyote and a wolf? It’s one of North America’s most successful hybrids. This one was spotted in West Virginia near the Virginia border.

In the early 1900s wolves in the east were hunted to death, so coyotes moved in, mated with wolves, and created a new species, the coywolf. It’s about 60% coyote, 30% wolf, and 10% dog. Looking at the picture, a coywolf is bigger than a coyote but smaller than a wolf. That means they thrive in forests and in urban areas too. Some hybrids can’t have babies, but coywolves can. Their population already numbers in the millions. 


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​                                                                     #2. The London Underground Mosquito
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​I’d never heard of mosquitoes in the subway, but they’re definitely in London. They were born when the Underground was built in the late 1800s, and they were recognized as a species in the 1990s.

Underground mosquitoes can breed year-round. They don’t hibernate like their above-ground cousins. The ones underground prefer mammal blood, especially human. They can reproduce without it but can’t mate with their cousins above-ground. 



                                                                                              #3. The Grolar Bear
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It’s not a typo. Some say it was a match made by climate change. As the Arctic has grown warmer, polar bears and grizzlies met and created a new species…the grolar bear. It’s also known as a pizzly…This one came from the Osnabrück Zoo in Germany.

The first wild grolar was shot by a hunter in Canada in 2006, although my source thought Native Americans already knew about it. Grolars are a combination of both bears. They’re middle sized with humped shoulders like a grizzly, but they have the creamy fur and extended neck of a polar bear. Their fur isn’t pure white; it’s spotted with grizzly brown patches.   
 


​                                                                                                    #4. Glofish

​Meet the first genetically modified animals to be sold as pets. They hit stores in 2003. A few common kinds—zebrafish, tetras, and tiger barbs. Their colors—red, green, orange, blue, and purple. Put them under ultraviolet lights, and their color is spectacular.

Would you believe glofish didn’t begin as pets? Scientists at the National University of Singapore designed them to monitor the environment. They took genes from bioluminescent jellyfish and sea anemones and put them into zebrafish. There are some arguments over how they were created, but it also shows how technology can create new life. 



                                                                                                #5. Ligers and Tigons
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Liger from Novosibirsk Zoo, Russia, and Maude the tigon from the Manchester Museum, England.

Ligers and Tigons, oh my! They’re magnificent and man-made. Ligers have lion fathers and tiger mothers, and Tigons have tiger fathers and lion mothers. 

But neither animal could exist in the wild—they’re from different parts of the world, plus they often have health problems. Add in that it’s difficult for them to reproduce. Sometimes female ligers and tigons can have cubs, but males rarely can. No wonder they’re a controversial animal that only exists in zoos.

Fun fact—Ligers are known for their size. The world’s biggest cat, Hercules. He stands 11 feet tall on his hind legs and weighs over 900 pounds. He is ONE, BIG cat!



                                                                                                           #6. Beefalo

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​Can you guess this hybrid? It’s part cow and part buffalo, and it was dreamed up on purpose. Cattlemen have been trying since the 1880s, and they finally did it in the 1970s…3/8 buffalo and 5/8 cow. This one is supposed to be a bull, but where are the horns? My source showed one that was part Texas longhorn. That beefalo HAD HORNS!

Beefalo have some real advantages. Their meat has less fat, cholesterol, and calories, and it’s higher in protein. Beefalo have the hardiness of the buffalo, but they’re docile, make milk and baby calves like cows do. Beefalo love cold weather, and they’ll thrive on cheaper forage.
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I’ve never heard of beefalo meat, but I read The American Beefalo Association registers thousands of them every year. Maybe someday I’ll find it at the grocery store!
 


                                                                       #7. Savannah Cat 
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Here, kitty, kitty ! This one is only four months old, but it’s rather extraordinary. Part house cat. Part serval. That’s a medium sized wild African cat. The first one was born in 1986 when someone put a wild and tame cat together. I thought wild animals stayed wild at heart.
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Savannah cats have long legs, sharp ears, and a spotted coat. They have a house cat’s temperament and a wild cat’s energy and intelligence. They’re great at jumping and solving problems, yet they’re loyal like dogs. Would you believe the International Cat Association recognized them in 2001, or that they won championship status in 2012? 

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#8. Wholphin

A what? Break the word in half, and you get a creature who’s part whale, part dolphin. The first documented, born in Hawaii in1985. It was an unplanned birth. The mother, a female bottlenose dolphin, shared a tank with a male false killer whale. Their calf, the first wholphin ever. Her color, a shade in between her parents. She has 66 teeth, a number in between too. Her mom had 88. Her dad, 44. Her size, would you believe in between? Bigger than mom, but smaller than dad.  

BTW, a false killer whale is one of the largest members of the dolphin family. It makes me wonder if they’re hybrids too, but I couldn’t find any proof. Another fun fact, the first wholphin went on to have a few calves of her own. Wholphins are rare because their parents would never ever meet in the wild. 



                                                                                          #9. Belgian Blue Cattle
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Sounds like a normal breed, but it all started with a natural mutation.  Before selective breeding, the Belgians were big milk and meat producers. Then cattlemen discovered a mutation…it regulates muscle growth. It lets Belgians develop 20-30% more muscles than their nonmutated cousins.

That means Belgians are lean and mean. Their nickname, ‘bodybuilder cattle.’ Can you see it in this photo? The good news—their meat is less fatty, has more protein. The down side—most female Belgians need a Caesarean section to give birth. If you look up Belgians on Wikipedia, you’ll see a female. It looks like she has a huge patch on her side. It’s a scar from giving birth. Sad fact—the modern Belgian looks completely different from their nonmutated great grandparents a hundred years ago.
  


                                                                      #10. Africanized Honey Bees

​You mean ‘killer bees!’ Yep! They’re the result of a 1950s science experiment gone wrong. A Brazilian scientist brought them from Africa to improve honey production. He bred them with European bees, but unfortunately 26 queens escaped quarantine in 1957, and their hybrid children spread across South America.

The hybrids inherited their mom’s defensive nature. That means if threatened, they respond quicker, in bigger numbers, and chase the threat farther than their European cousins would. They didn’t make their way to the US until 1990, and they’ve spread across our southern states. The up side to the Africanized bees—they’re great pollinators and honey makers. They’re also one of the most successful species at adapting to their environment.

                           The horrifying side, in 65 years those bees have killed over 1,000 people.



                                                                              #11. The First Cloned Animals
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When I read the title, I immediately thought of Dolly the sheep. She made news in 1996 when she became the first successful animal to be cloned or copied from an adult cell.

Evidently, I missed the other news. Dolly was the first mammal. The first animal ever cloned, a northern leopard frog in 1952. Carps, the fish came in the 1960s. After Dolly, cloning exploded, literally! Mice and cattle in 1998, goats in 1999, pigs 2000, rabbits 2002, horses 2003, dogs 2005, and last but not least ferrets in 2020.
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I thought of clones as copies, but they actually have a few tiny differences from the original animal. That’s because of the differences in where and how the two grew up. Cloning could preserve endangered species, create special research animals. It could even revive extinct species, but that made me think of dire wolves and Jurassic Park. YIKES!



                                                                  #12. Genetically Modified Lab Animals
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​No, the mice in the picture weren’t the first GMO animals, but they were the first to have foreign DNA added to their embryos back in 1974. By 1980, scientists came up with the opposite, ‘knockout mice.’ They disabled certain genes for research purposes. In 1988 someone patented the ‘OncoMouse.’ Poor Mouse, it was genetically designed to develop cancer, but it made history…the first animal ever patented.  

The possibilities are endless now, like the mice in the photo. Ultraviolet light makes them glow. Would you believe there are goats that make spider silk protein in their milk? The silk has medical uses for things like artificial ligaments, and it also makes airbags work better. Wow, great silk!

There’s more…pigs with immune systems to help transplant research, mosquitoes designed to resist malaria parasites., and the saddest…mice who will develop Alzheimer’s or muscular dystrophy. I’m sad for the mice, but grateful for future patients. My dad died from Alzheimer’s. It feels like we’re living in a brave new world.
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                                                                                          #13. Carolina Hamsters
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​This is a pet Syrian hamster, and it’s where the Carolina story begins…with the pets escaping or being released into the wild. They adapted, evolved, and were found in the southern Appalachian Mountains. That was in 2013. When scientists checked their DNA, it had already changed, 60-70 years ago. That means they’re the youngest mammal on the planet.

Our newest mammal has 3 different names: the Carolina, Eastern, or Appalachian hamster. It’s bigger than its pet ancestor. It has thicker fur and hibernates better. It’s more nocturnal and guarded. The Syrian hamsters had to change, to survive.

The Carolina hamster has done what most escaped pets can’t…it survived, without invading or destroying its neighborhood. Finding them showed scientist how quickly evolution occurs when a creature faces new problems. Syrian hamsters found a way to live, and thrive.