What is the most Canadian animal species? 

That’s the question Hannah McCurdy-Adams brought to a team of researchers at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in B.C. in 2020. 

McCurdy-Adams is a reptile and amphibian program development coordinator at Wildlife Preservation Canada, and needed to decide which animals to prioritize in her work. So, she reached out to researchers at SFU. The question would take them the next four years to solve. 

The team looked at the global family trees of all terrestrial vertebrate species, mainly coming from the Zoological Society of London, to isolate those found in Canada. 

“We know what our most isolated species are globally, but it hasn’t really been done before at the national level, which tends to be where most conservation work is done,” says Emma Kominek, a PhD student who worked on the research.

Tracing these family trees, the researchers assessed all the species according to their evolutionary distinctness: the amount of time they have evolved independently. The further back in time a species connects to its family tree and the fewer relatives it has overall, the higher its score. The researchers then ranked species into top 20 lists according to their group, with separate lists for mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds, as well as a collective top 10 list. 

They found the most evolutionarily “Canadian” animals include the spiny softshell turtle, mudpuppy, northern alligator lizard, virginia opossum, belted kingfisher and the pond slider.

These species have unique biological features, embody up to a hundred million years of evolution independent of other Canadian species and contribute significantly to Canadian biodiversity.

“We are in a unique position where our country is potentially having millions of years of irreplaceable evolutionary history lost if these species do become extinct in our country,” says Kominek. “Hopefully this new perspective might change people’s perceptions of some of our species that have a less positive reputation.”

Arne Mooer, lead researcher on the study, says the findings are a good conversation starter.

“We can use these rankings to help us decide where to put our resources, especially when we have two species that are at the same level of risk,” he says. “It can [also] work to highlight species that people might otherwise not be familiar with.”