h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am astonished at the long legs of this one. I always assumed that mongooses had short legs like weasels. That shows my ignorance.

Hi Elektra! That's just the thing, mongooses are diverse. We have many short-legged ones and then these long-legged ones, and in-between ones. Aside from this one, there's also a group called dog-mongooses that also have quite long legs and walk high. They are smaller than this one, though, so they look like small doggies. I can find almost no photos of them … many that supposedly are, are actually mis-identifications.

As the planets land masses split etc over millennia, it's surprising that for all the many species (in isolation) still have a very close resemblance to it's relatives on other continents

Darwin was correct

Hi Prof! There's indeed a streak of conservativeness in many critters. Mongooses are rather close to the original first of the advanced carnivores, the ones at the base of the group which became dogs, foxes, cats large and small, otters, weasels, skunks, genets, civets and even the seals and sea lions! I hope to soon be getting into the evolution of 'proper' mammals. Still got a bunch of proto-mammals to cover ...

I might not converse with you much Willem (a fault on my side)
But I do watch you in "The Post" mate

No prob Prof, I should also do more to converse with you! We see pretty eye to eye after all.

The olde saying my friend = great minds thank alike