Dianne Miller, age 10, of Warren, Ohio, for her question:

What is a hyrax?

Hyraxes live in the Middle East and parts of Africa. In the Bible, they are called conies, which are bunny type animals. It is easy to mistake them for rabbit relatives, even though they have no tails and their ears are short and rounded. Rock hyraxes live in large family groups among the rocks. Their cousins, the tree hyraxes, spend most of their lives in the trees. All hyraxes are gentle creatures that feed on plant food.

Scientists, as you know, class the various animals with their close relatives. But the hyraxes are not related to any other small furry animals. Their teeth are different, so are certain bones. What's more, the claws on their tiny toes are somewhat like little horsey hooves. So the hyraxes are classed in a special group of their own. Scientists suspect that their remote ancestors may have been related to ancient hoses, rhinos and hippos. Perhaps this was true 100 million years ago. But the hyraxes have no close relatives left in the modern world.