MNN.com > Earth Matters > Animals

MNN Galleries

17 animals that are living fossils

By: Bryan Nelson on March 11, 2019, 10:30 a.m.

Pig-nosed turtle in an aquarium

Photo: pitcharee/Shutterstock

14 of 19

Pig-nosed turtle

As the only living member of the family Carettochelyidae, the pig-nosed turtle is one of a kind — and not just because of its distinctive snout. Unlike most freshwater turtles, these guys have flippers which more closely resemble those of marine turtles, making them almost entirely aquatic.

A shell on a beach.

Komodo dragons were the stuff of legend until explorers in the early 1900s confirmed that these huge beasts are real.

A sandhill crane taking flight over the Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area in Indiana.

An aardvark in the wild.

Red pandas are truly a species all their own.

Tuatara are prehistoric reptiles that have barely changed at all.

Unlike their octopus cousins, nautiluses have their own shells.

This blob-looking creature sounds like a chicken.

Platypus swimming in water

A mantis shrimp on a black sandy beach

An unidentified hagfish

A Hoatzin on a tree branch in Peru

A koala bear climbing up a branch

Pig-nosed turtle in an aquarium

Horseshoe crab on a sandy beach

Goblin shark illustration

Elephant shrew inside the zoo of Antwerp.

A crocodile in the Nile

Pig-nosed turtle

As the only living member of the family Carettochelyidae, the pig-nosed turtle is one of a kind — and not just because of its distinctive snout. Unlike most freshwater turtles, these guys have flippers which more closely resemble those of marine turtles, making them almost entirely aquatic.