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ArtistIn times of climate change, with insects becoming rare food, pangolins have turned to the ocean for new food sources. Pangolins’ evolution into semi-aquatic animals is founded on natural advantages they have: They have a natural swimming proficiency, and are very powerful and graceful swimmers, using their snake-like tails to propel themselves through water with speed and ease. Pangolins have valves to seal their ears and nostrils, a feature they developed to keep insects from crawling into their ears or nose. This physical characteristic serves them well in the water, also allowing them to dive deep to forage for shells, crustaceans and other bottom-dwellers of the ocean. Pangolins’ overlapping keratin scales form a streamlined, hydrodynamic armor in the water. Pangolins have always sought out water to rid themselves of parasites. Taken together, these features predispose pangolins to evolve for an aquatic life, where they only surface to breathe and to bear their young. Their evolution has given them webs stretched between their heavy digging claws. Their tails have flattened horizontally to act as an efficient paddle. Pangolins will have no problems evolving further into fully aquatic animals. The image shows a single pangolin swimming and foraging. The style is a biological illustration with extreme scientific precision, drawn as line art in bold colors.
Pangolins in the ocean? They could evolve, after all!