Yes, it's this! ❤️
!elephants@lemmy.world

https://media.piefed.social/posts/R7/jE/R7jEKz3KAX0LnQG.webp

Now, the reasoning in that fallacious logic is that the Proboscids (ancestors of elephants) and Hyracoids (ancestors of cute little hyraxes) indeed once shared a common ancestor!

Thing is, YES-- they did... around 60-75yrs ago. Also yes, all others of their relatives didn't survive in to modernity, an incredibly common thing across life & evolution.

Right, I haven't done a deep-dive myself in to that theoretical common ancestor, but maybe:

https://media.springernature.com/lw703/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fnature.2013.12398/MediaObjects/41586_2013_Article_BFnature201312398_Figa_HTML.jpg

Perhaps another way of saying that, despite all the natural branching-points of life on Earth, is that only a tiny fraction of the species that once existed on our Ball o' Fun are still alive today (maybe about ~0.5% as a median estimate?). And... that's just the way the ball bounces, I suppose? :S

Bah, in any case, here's the ACTUAL answer to that question-- "the closest relative to any one hyrax is... their littermates and parents," of course. But in terms of SPECIES? (and here's my whole point:)

In species-scale, the closest relative to a hyrax is... hahaha other hyraxes!!