What is the ‘most Canadian’ animal? Spoiler: it’s not the beaver, or the moose. A new study ranks species of terrestrial vertebrates in Canada by their level of Canadian evolutionary distinctness: the amount of time animals have evolved independently from other Canadian species. The study found that, overall, amphibians and reptiles are Canada’s most evolutionarily distinct species, with Apalone spinifera — better known as the spiny softshell turtle — being the most evolutionary distinct terrestrial animal in the land.