Think of an animal.
A familiar favorite is a fine place to start. Search for its name and make your first guess.
THE DAILY DISCOVERY/A fresh trail awaits
Every animal has a story.
Find today’s.
One mystery animal.
A whole world of connections.
A whole world of connections.
EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED
Your first guess plants the seed.
Follow the shared branches.
The closer the family, the closer you are.
Swipe sideways to explore the tree. Select a branch to learn more.
| Guess | Shared family | Clue |
|---|
Your guesses will appear here as the trail unfolds.
Your guessesShared ancestry?
The mystery animal
Explore this branch
Along your trail
RECENT GUESSESNo guesses recorded for this round.
A LITTLE NATURAL CURIOSITY
How the trail works.
You don’t need to be a zoologist.
Just bring your curiosity.
Find the connection.
We show the family group your guess shares with the mystery animal. Each branch is a clue.
Follow a new branch.
Use what you’ve learned to get closer. You have 20 guesses to make your discovery.
NOTES FROM THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
A world worth
getting to know.
Familiar faces.
Unexpected relatives.
Unexpected relatives.
THE CONNECTION COLLECTION
Unexpected relatives
Featured reads that make the family tree click.
FIELD NOTE 01A whale’s surprising land connectionBlue whale, hippo, or salmon: water is not a family tree.Read the story ↗FIELD NOTE 02A crocodile’s bird connectionThe mallard beats the wall lizard in this three-way comparison.Read the story ↗FIELD NOTE 03The hyena is on the cat sideCat-like and dog-like are branch names, not personality tests.Read the story ↗
No animals found. Try a different name.
THE CONNECTION COLLECTION
Small stories.
Unexpected connections.
Whales and hippos. Hyenas and cats. Discover unexpected relatives through short reads, clear explanations, and sources you can follow.
FIELD NOTE 01A whale’s surprising land connectionBlue whale, hippo, or salmon: water is not a family tree.Read the story ↗FIELD NOTE 02A crocodile’s bird connectionThe mallard beats the wall lizard in this three-way comparison.Read the story ↗FIELD NOTE 03The hyena is on the cat sideCat-like and dog-like are branch names, not personality tests.Read the story ↗FIELD NOTE 04An octopus’s snail connectionA shared sea is less informative than a shared mollusc branch.Read the story ↗FIELD NOTE 05An elephant’s unexpected water linkThe manatee shares a branch that the hippo does not.Read the story ↗FIELD NOTE 06A bat is closer to a cat hereThe Egyptian fruit bat takes the cat branch over the mouse branch.Read the story ↗
UNEXPECTED RELATIVES
An elephant’s unexpected water link
The manatee shares a branch that the hippo does not.
An African bush elephant is more closely related to a West Indian manatee than to a Nile hippopotamus on this family tree.
The manatee is closer here
An African bush elephant is more closely related to a West Indian manatee than to a Nile hippopotamus on this tree. Familiar large mammals may seem like a natural group, but that impression does not identify their nearest shared branch. This question names two candidates and asks which one shares the more specific ancestral group with the elephant. The manatee is that candidate.
Afrotheria inside Eutheria
The elephant and manatee meet at Afrotheria, the afrotherian group. The elephant and hippo meet at the broader Eutheria, the placental-mammal group used in this taxonomy. All three paths pass through Eutheria, but the elephant and manatee continue together within Afrotheria. The useful clue is that nested relationship. The group’s name is a classification label, not a rule for sorting animals by where you see them today.
Not a claim about the closest animal of all
Choosing the manatee does not rank every living animal against the elephant. It only puts the manatee ahead of the hippo in this fixed comparison. Nor is one of these living animals presented as another’s ancestor. The diagram also gives no date for their common ancestry. A more specific shared branch helps compare relatedness; counting the named groups along a path cannot by itself produce an evolutionary timeline.
Test the comparison, not the impression
For elephant–manatee, write Afrotheria; for elephant–hippo, write Eutheria. Then check that Afrotheria lies inside Eutheria. That is enough to distinguish these two candidates. Keeping the comparison this precise prevents a second mistake: turning “the manatee is closer than the hippo” into “everything that resembles an elephant must be closely related.” The same method works whether the animals in the example are associated with land or water.
Meet the animals
Sources & method
Relationships follow NCBI Taxonomy. Branch order does not measure genetic similarity or time since divergence.
A LITTLE NATURAL CURIOSITY
How to play the daily game.
AnimalLoop brings together animal games and discoveries. In the daily guessing game, find one mystery animal in 20 opportunities, following clues on the branches that connect animals to one another.
How do I start?
Open the daily game. Search for a common name, Chinese name, or scientific name, select an animal, and submit your guess. Every accepted guess uses one of your 20 opportunities. A wrong guess reveals a shared ancestral branch; use that clue to choose your next animal.
What does a hint cost?
After your first guess, an available branch hint costs three opportunities. It reveals the next ancestral branch, without naming the answer or revealing a species or a narrower group. When only three opportunities remain, taking a hint uses them all and ends the round. You can also choose to reveal the answer and finish the round.
What does the family tree show?
The tree follows NCBI Taxonomy, including groups without a formal rank. Branches show classification, not a similarity percentage or a measured time since divergence. Wikipedia may use a different classification.
You must guess the exact catalogued animal. Guessing one of its descendants does not count as a correct answer. When the closest shared branch would name the mystery animal, the game shows a higher ancestor to keep the answer hidden.
When does the daily animal change?
The daily puzzle resets at 00:00 UTC. Completed daily games count once toward your statistics; daily wins determine your streak. Practice rounds let you explore more animals without changing your daily streak or daily statistics.
Do I need an account?
No login is needed. Progress, preferences, and statistics are saved with localStorage in this browser. They do not sync between devices or browsers, and clearing site data removes them. See the privacy and source notes.
Where can I learn about the animals?
Browse the field guide for animal names, classification, reading, and source links. Wikipedia excerpts identify their source revision and CC BY-SA licence. Image credits link to the creator, original source, and individual licence; check those terms before reusing an image.
NOTES ON THIS EDITION
Privacy & sources.
AnimalLoop saves your game progress in your browser. These notes describe the current game’s storage and the sources behind its animal family tree and field guide.
What stays in your browser
The game uses localStorage to save daily and practice progress, preferences such as language and theme, and daily statistics. There is no account or cloud sync. Clearing this site’s browser data removes those saved records; another device or browser has its own records. This edition has no analytics or advertising SDK.
Images and external links
Some images load from Wikimedia Commons. Its servers receive normal request information, including your IP address and browser request headers. Following a source link opens an external website, which follows its own privacy policy. See the Wikimedia privacy policy for its practices.
The animal family tree
Classification follows NCBI Taxonomy. The game uses the catalogued lineage, including unranked groups, to connect guesses. It does not measure visual resemblance or genetic similarity, and other sources may use different classifications.
Reading, images, and licences
Wikipedia excerpts retain a link to their source revision and credit Wikipedia contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. Images have individual licences and creator credits in their field notes; not every image uses the same licence. The local image credits also list bundled media sources.
Read the game instructions, explore the field guide, or start a daily game or practice round.