Monad

I was watching an old David Attenborough documentary from his Attenborough in Paradise DVD - it had some very amusing footage of a Tree Kangaroo struggling to climb about in it's tree. It seems although they spend all their lives in the tree's they are absolute crap at climbing or maintaining their balance compared to most arboreal mammals and as a consequence move about in a very ungainly fashion. If there were any decent predators on New Guinea they would not survive for very long I suspect but the fact is they can get away with such poor climbing and balancing skills largely because there are none - the main threat is probably falling. The reason they live in tree's is basically New Guinea is one big forest so there was a niche there for any mammal able to make use of it - the forests are very rich habitats - but the only mammal to make it across to New Guinea before it was cut off from Australia appears to have been the Tree Kangaroo - the forest is largely dominated by birds otherwise. Kangaroo's are well adapted to life on the ground with their large powerful back legs adapted for jumping so they have had to make the best of what they had. Surely no designer starting from scratch would have come up with such a beast - unless as a joke. So I nominate the Tree Kangaroo for a new list to compliment Oolong's list of Bad design - the Unlikely Animals list. Any others?

Method

I nominate the fossa. It looks like a cross between a cat and a dog, but it is actually more closely related to the mongoos and other viverrids. It has taken on some of the adaptations in both cats and dogs, such as it's overall morphology and retractable claws. It is found in Madagascar, an island full of critters that could probably make the list.

Monad

I love the Fossa but having seen one hunting Sifaka's it seemed very well adapted to what it does - I was really looking for animals that are "making the best of a bad job" so to speak as the best evidence of an evolutionary history - just as bad design and vestigial traits are. Or is there more to the Fossa?

On Madagascar I'd say the Aye Aye may be a better candidate - it's trying to make a living in a woodpecker niche but being a primate it has to make use of it's fingers and hearing instead to do the job (there are several parallels as well that have the elongated fingers - a couple of possums for example)

Y.B

How about that urochordate, the sea squirt?

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/art...easquirt.shtml

Edit: ok, so you were looking for kind of "bad design". Sorry.

Karalora

Mountain gorillas reportedly hate the cool, wet climate they live in.

quester

A famous example of an animal trying to be a woodpecker is the woodpecker finch of the Galapagos. Not having the long woodpecker tongue, it has to keep picking up and putting down a cactus spine to dig out insects.

The giant panda came to my mind as an unlikely animal. Here's a carnivore that can't catch anything but bamboo.

Splarnst

Why are there no decent predators on Guinea? It seems odd that an island that large wouldn't have any.

premjan

because it is isolated and only the birds could get there?

Cynner

Unlikely animal? Humans. Essentially hairless obligate bipedal apes, without natural defenses or weapons. Required to utilize complex tools and acessories to survive in all but the most temperate of climates. Unable to defend themselves alone, they have formed large intricate social groups which increases their risk of disease and damages their environments to the point where the more affluent have to migrate. These social groups have become so complex that many now visit virtual bulletin boards to communicate with like minded individuals.

mindovermyth

Considering that some 99% of all animals god ever designed have been scrapped (extinct), god is clearly the ultimate fashion designer.