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Aardwolves — the "weird cousin" of the hyena world that has peg teeth and only eats insects — are an evolutionary mystery, stemming from a ghost lineage that scientists haven't been able to figure out. Aardwolves, which translates as "earth wolves" in Afrikaans, are the smallest of the four hyena species. (Image credit: pjmalsbury via Getty Images) Name: Aardwolf (Proteles cristatus) Where it lives: Savannah and grasslands in eastern and southern Africa What it eats: Termites and ants Why it's awesome: Unlike their meat-eating relatives, these solitary, nocturnal little hyenas survive on a diet almost entirely made up of termites....

Scientists have discovered an ancient, giant, crocodile-like creature in Madagascar that had T-Rex-sized teeth it used for crunching bones,. The discovery helps to fill in the evolutionary gaps of a 74 million year long crocodilian “ghost lineage.” Researchers first discovered fossils of a giant predator on the island over a decade ago. At the time, scientists believed they had discovered a large predator from the Jurassic period and they named the creature Razanandrongobe sakalavae, meaning “giant lizard ancestor from Sakalava region.”