The most Canadian animal? ItB次元官网网址檚 not the beaver that marks the nickel, the moose that pervades souvenir shops across the country, or the loon that gave the one-dollar B次元官网网址渓oonieB次元官网网址� its name.

In fact, the spiny softshell turtle is CanadaB次元官网网址檚 most distinct animal in evolutionary terms, researchers from Simon Fraser University show in a first-of-its-kind study.

Arne Mooers, a biodiversity professor who led the research,says it means the threatened freshwater turtle found in southern Ontario and Quebec has spent the longest stretch of time evolving independently from other species in Canada.

The researchers started by building a B次元官网网址渢ree of lifeB次元官网网址� using CanadaB次元官网网址檚 official list of species, which includes 222 mammals, 674 birds, 48 amphibians and 49 reptiles.

They identified the top 20 most isolated species for each group and found the spiny softshell turtle topped the rankings, representing nearly 180 million years of independent evolutionary history, while CanadaB次元官网网址檚 lone marsupial, the Virginia opossum, was the top-ranked mammal at nearly 160 million years.

The softshell turtle is followed by the mudpuppy, the only completely aquatic amphibian in Canada, and a species that Mooers describes as B次元官网网址渞eally cute.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址淚t can grow as long as a small cat, and it can live for 30 years,B次元官网网址� he says.

The ranking not only highlights species that are often B次元官网网址渨eird and wonderful,B次元官网网址� like the mudpuppy, he says, but also offers a kind of B次元官网网址渢riageB次元官网网址� tool for conservation efforts.

A species that has close relatives in other countries may be isolated and threatened in Canada, and a high ranking for evolutionary distinctiveness could help conservationists determine which species to focus on, he says.

B次元官网网址淚f we have limited resources, then this could be one way to help us decide what to do, and say, B次元官网网址榃ell this one really is very different from everything else, and weB次元官网网址檝e got a measurement of that so maybe we should make sure we donB次元官网网址檛 lose this species.B次元官网网址橞次元官网网址�

ItB次元官网网址檚 one of many ways to assess species, but it is a B次元官网网址渘ew way,B次元官网网址� adds Mooers, a member of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

He says the study published this month in the Canadian Field-Naturalist, a peer-reviewed journal, is the first to create scores for the evolutionary distinctiveness of species in a particular country, going deeper than the speciesB次元官网网址� global ranking.

B次元官网网址淚f you do global conservation, you want the global list, but if youB次元官网网址檙e interested in your country, maybe you want a country-specific list, and they might not be the same.B次元官网网址�

Overall, the researchers found most of the species with high evolutionary distinctiveness rankings in Canada were amphibians and reptiles.

The tree of life for mammals in Canada is B次元官网网址渧ery weird,B次元官网网址� Mooers notes, because it includes the countryB次元官网网址檚 only marsupial, the Virginia opossum.

The opossum pushes the mammal family tree back to 158.8 million years, but the rest of the top-ranked mammals are more closely related to each other.

They range from about 24 million years of independent evolution for the pallid bat to close to 64 million for the North American porcupine, the study says.