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It may come as a surprise that whales and dolphins, collectively called cetaceans, are most closely related to the hoofed animals called artiodactyls.

“That left us with sound, which sounded kind of crazy until we looked at vocal behavior of other artiodactyls,” O’Brien says.

The Pronghorn or Pronghorn antelope* Antilocapra americana is a strikingly unique artiodactyl, endemic to western North America.

Takins are muscular, stocky creatures that do not look like artiodactyls when seen briefly from the wrong angle.

"Similar cases of mistaken identity have occurred in the past," Harrison says, including claims for Miocene primates in East Africa that turned out to be artiodactyls and other nonprimates.