History Main / AlienAnimals

* A variation in ''Literature/{{Protector}}'': [[spoiler:all primates, including humans,]] are distant descendants of a group of [[spoiler:Pak -- known to palaeontologists as ''Homo habilis'' --]] whose spaceship crashed on Earth millions of years ago. It is speculated that the radiation from their power plants accelerated their evolution into new species. This is easily one of the largest ArtisticLicenseBiology ever taken by Niven, who usually makes extremely hard science-fiction.

* A variant in ''Manga/FairyTail''. [[TeamPet Team pets]] Happy and Carla are thought to be cats native to Earthland, despite being able to talk, fly, and hatch from eggs (which in a world of flying intelligent dragons, Vulcan that perve on human woman and can take-over male bodies, and Celestial Spirits in the form of mermaids, minotaurs, and crab-men; isn't that strange). It turns out they are Exceeds, a race of cat-like creatures from the parallel world of Edolas, [[spoiler:sent to Earthland to escape a cataclysm fated to end their homeworld]].

* ComicBook/KryptoTheSuperdog is (usually) a dog from Krypton and looks like an Earth-native dog even if he normally doesn't resemble a specific breed. Some artists make him look a lot like a yellow lab with abnormally pale coloring.

* In '80s ''Ziggy'' Sunday strips, the titular character's pet parrot turned out to be an advance scout for an alien invasion force. This idea since seems to have been dropped.

* ''Film/TheCatFromOuterSpace''. The lead cat arrives in a spaceship and falls for one of the native cats. Oh, and this is a ''live-action film'' otherwise starring ''humans''.
** In a nice nod to something not unlike realism, he [[TranslatorCollar depended on a jeweled collar for telepathically communicating with humans]] and telekinetic manipulation of objects.
* Frank in ''Film/MenInBlack'' is by all outward appearances a regular pug. However, he is a fully sapient and sarcastic alien.
** In [[RecycledTheSeries the animated series]], he is revealed to be... [[spoiler: an alien that looks almost just like a pug.]]

* The chupacabra that feeds on goats' blood is sometimes depicted as a hairless dog-like animal left behind on Earth by its extraterrestrial owners.

** In an interview, KA implied that ants evolved from the Nesk, a hivemind race that tried to colonize Earth during the age of the dinosaurs.
* A Creator/SpiderRobinson story in the Literature/{{Callahan|sCrosstimeSaloon}} series reveals that we find cockroaches distasteful because they are the degenerate descendants of an evil alien race of overlords.

* Franchise/CthulhuMythos: The Cats of Earth's Dream Lands are notable for their intelligence, grace, ability to leap across the interstellar void and their ongoing war with the Cats of Saturn.
* A fantasy example from ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''. Nobody on the Disc suspects that [[spoiler: dragons]] come from the moon until they actually get there and find a ton of them romping around. [[spoiler: They're still dumb animals, although slightly healthier in their native environment. Intelligent dragons are, of course, [[YourMindMakesItReal imaginary]].]]
* Dolphins and mice from ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''. However, dolphins are never mentioned to be aliens, but rather just much, much smarter than humans. It's ''white mice'' who are the aliens, granted they're HumanAliens in their own plane of existence.
** In ''The Restaurant at the End of the Universe'', we learn that ''Humans'' are in fact aliens as well, descended from telephone-disinfectors, advertising executives, and other "useless" people from the planet Golgafrincham.
** According to [[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy the novels]], it would seem that dolphins are the only native sapient life on Earth.
*** Neanderthals might count as well, or they might just be biological robotic components of the computer designed to find the Ultimate Question. In any case, they all died out after the telephone-sanitisers arrived.

* "In the Doghouse", by Creator/OrsonScottCard and Jay A. Davis (collected in ''Literature/MapsInAMirror''): Dogs one day start speaking human languages and announcing that they're aliens -- and nobody takes them seriously; even when they start demonstrating their advanced intelligence by solving complicated math problems and the like, everybody shrugs it off as just a cute trick.

* A variation in Creator/LarryNiven's ''{{Literature/Protector}}'': [[spoiler:all primates, including humans,]] are distant descendants of a group of [[spoiler:Pak -- known to palaeontologists as ''Homo habilis'' --]] whose spaceship crashed on Earth millions of years ago. It is speculated that the radiation from their power plants accelerated their evolution into new species. This is easily one of the largest ArtisticLicenseBiology ever taken by Niven, who usually makes extremely hard science-fiction.
* The cats in the book ''Star Ka'at'' and its sequels. Earth cats were colonists from a planet of sentient cats; when Earth got in danger, the advanced alien cats went to retrieve the Earth cats.
** Also the trope is played with when it's revealed partway through the story that some of the Earth cats have degenerated to the point where they can no longer respond to the telepathic summons, and it's implied that these degenerate cats may even now '''be''' the mere animals humans thought them to be.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E4Survival "Survival"]], the Cheetah People's minions the Kitlings look exactly like Earth cats, except that they can teleport.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth "The Stolen Earth"]], it's the [[spoiler:BEES! Okay, not all of them, but a lot of them were and they were going home, back to the planet Melissa Majoria.]]

* The ''Franchise/StarTrek Encyclopedia'' jokes that Data's cat, Spot from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' changes appearance and gender between episodes because he's a shapeshifter in disguise.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons:'' in the ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' setting, spacefaring gnomes have bred a [[UndergroundMonkey staggering variety]] of giant space hamsters to serve as FantasticLivestock (and [[HamsterWheelPower power sources]]) for their spelljamming ships. One variant, the [[OxymoronicBeing miniature giant space hamster]], is intelligent, sapient, and telepathic. They're sometimes introduced to planets (where they become known simply as "hamsters"), and they prefer not to draw attention to themselves by using their psychic abilities.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The Jokaero are a race almost identical to orangutans. Aside from their knowledge of technology, they're pretty much just apes, even though they were created millennia before earth apes by the [[AbusivePrecursors Old Ones]].

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'': [[CloudCuckoolander Minsc]] the ranger claims that his pet hamster, Boo, is a miniature giant space hamster he consults for advice. While Minsc ''has'' gotten clonked on the head pretty badly, the games' setting of the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' has had canonical crossovers with ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' content, so it's possible that Boo is more than he appears.

* ''VideoGame/PrzygodyReksia'': The fourth game reveals that the ancestors of all the moles on Earth are actually from Kuran (which would have been known as Kreton back then). They reached Earth in a space ship that was subsequently destroyed by Reksio and Kretes when they traveled to the prehistoric era.
* In the game ''Sheep'' you have to lead the sheep, who have become stupid in the time they were on Earth, back to their home planet.

* ''VideoGame/StarControl3'' had the aliens as ''cows''.
* Some of the [=NPCs=] from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' appear to be either bunnies, penguins, bees, and orcas. ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' actually introduced [=NPCs=] such as hummingbirds and chimpanzees.
* ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'' reveals that [[spoiler:Chao are actually descended from an alien species known to Earth as the Ancients. After a second attack by The End, the surviving Ancients had their DNA corroded by radiation over several generations until they turned into the Chao.]]

* ''VisualNovel/Adastra2018'': Every alien species depicted is one of these, [[BeastMen anthro species ranging from canine to feline.]] Given they uplifted humanity and [[AncientAstronauts gave them most of their early culture]], this isn't too unreasonable.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Blog/HowToHero'' deals with these in their entry on [[https://howtohero.tumblr.com/post/169761172692/pets "Pets"]].
[[/folder]]

* The dinosaur-like aliens from ''WesternAnimation/ChipAndDaleRescueRangers''. They look like earthling dinosaurs only smaller and more advanced, but during the Late Jurassic Period when they arrived, they ate the dinosaurs' earthling food and became as large as them, but less intelligent.
* In one ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' episode ("Twin Beaks"), the hero gets help from aliens that looks exactly like Earth cows. Possibly a ShoutOut to a ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' story in which Reed hypnotized some shapeshifting aliens into [[ShapeshifterModeLock mode locking]] themselves into cows.

* ''WesternAnimation/FourEyes'': Alien protagonist Emma states that [[spoiler:frogs are originally from her home planet, Albacore 7, and because of this, she can communicate with them.]]

** In the "Yapper" episode, Mertle's pet dog, Gigi, is revealed to be one of Jumba's experiments (Experiment 007), designed to look and act like a Shih-Tzu dog, annoying people with its constant yapping.
** Downplayed by Hämsterviel who he looks rather like an Earth gerbil or hamster, but doesn't usually pose as an actual hamster or gerbil and doesn't look entirely consistent to any actual earth species of gerbil, let alone hamster. One episode has him being adopted by Mertle and put in a cage just like a hamster.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': Eda tells Luz that giraffes were originally from the Boiling Isles, but were banished to Earth for being weirdos ([[HypocriticalHumor said the witch that later leaves her detached hand on her magic staff]]).
* ''WesternAnimation/PollyPocket'': In "Area Fifty-None," it's revealed that at least some Earth turtles (including Shani's own pet turtle) are really space aliens.
* On ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'', Sunspot is kind of a mix of a rabbit, kangaroo, and raccoon.
* On ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' Earth is revealed to actually be a massive, millennia-old alien reality show. Apparently, every other planet only has one species--a planet of deer, a planet of Asians, etc.--and we're all just forced together so everyone can watch what happens.
* On ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'', an alien is visiting Earth when its intelligent pet, which looks like a green dog, escapes. Meanwhile [[{{Animorphism}} Beast Boy]], who can turn into a green version of any animal, is impersonating a dog.

* ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlack'': It is revealed that Frank the Pug looks very much like a dog anyway underneath his disguise suit.

** Downplayed by Hamsterviel who he looks rather like an Earth gerbil or hamster, but doesn't usually pose as an actual hamster or gerbil and doesn't look entirely consistent to any actual earth species of gerbil, let alone hamster. One episode has him being adopted by Mertle and put in a cage just like a hamster.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'': Boo, the [[OxymoronicBeing miniature giant]] space hamster. At least if you take [[CloudCuckoolander Minsc's]] word for it.
** A ''regular'' space hamster (i.e. a hamster living on a spaceship) resembling Boo makes an appearance in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''.
** Ordinary giant space hamsters do in fact exist in the setting (they were bred by a bunch of crazy gnomes to help power their spacefaring 'Jammers), as does miniaturisation magic, so a miniature giant space hamster could well exist. Unless Boo is an ''Awakened'' Miniature Giant Space Hamster, however, he should be just as intelligent as any hamster.

* ''VideoGame/StarControl3'' had the aliens as ''[[DropTheCow cows]]''.

You have just encountered the Alien Animal. These aliens don't have [[LittleGreenMen green skin]] or {{rubber forehead|Aliens}}s, they just look exactly like a specific type of animal. Maybe they make up the entire population of that animal on Earth or only part of them. Sometimes they are leaving Earth because they have knowledge about the impending {{end of the world}} and sometimes they just like [[AliensStealCable watching television]]. Just [[MST3KMantra relax]] and go with it.

* The ''Franchise/IrisWildthyme'' series has Poodles of Dogworld that can pass for Earth poodles if they cover up their human-like hands. There's a similar race if cat-like aliens from the planet Pussyworld.

* Staryu and Starmie from ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' are implied to be from outer space. They're [[StarfishAliens starfish with mysterious psychic powers]].
** Even more strongly implied are the Clefairy family, [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter space fairies]]. Strangely, this is supposed to be the reason they react to Moon Stones-- which [[FridgeLogic raises interesting questions]] about everything ''else'' that evolves by Moon Stone (Jigglypuff, Nidoran, Skitty, Munna, etc.).
*** It's commonly theorized that the other Pokémon that evolve by Moon Stone are biologically related.

If the alien doesn't naturally resemble an animal but has disguised itself as one through VoluntaryShapeshifting, then TheDogIsAnAlien. If the alien looks like an animal but isn't on Earth posing as one, it's probably an IntelligentGerbil. If the alien animals are a certain species of great ape, see HumanityCameFromSpace. Can overlap with TransplantedAliens.

* ''VisualNovel/Adastra2018'': Every alien species depicted is one of these, [[BeastMen anthro species ranging from canine to feline.]] Given they uplifted humanity and [[AncientAliens gave them most of their early culture]], this isn't too unreasonable.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'', an alien is visiting Earth when its intelligent pet, which looks like a green dog, escapes. Meanwhile [[{{Animorphism}} Beast Boy]], who can turn into a green version of any animal, is impersonating a dog. HilarityEnsues.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* While not intelligent, foxes in ''Webcomic/{{Jix}}'' are, in fact, extraterrestrial. A race of aliens took a group of pre-evolved foxes from the Ambis home-world and deposited on Earth to study divergent evolution on a planetary scale. The pre-evolved foxes remaining on their original planet evolved into Ambis while the ones on Earth (of course) evolved into foxes, making the Ambis the distant cousins of foxes. (In fact, Ambis bear a striking resemblance to foxes.)

* Not all, but a lot of cats and dogs in the ''Literature/{{Outernet}}'' are members of two rival races of shapeshifters in disguise.

* A variation in Creator/LarryNiven's ''{{Literature/Protector}}'': [[spoiler:all primates, including humans,]] are distant descendants of a group of [[spoiler:Pak -- known to palaeontologists as ''Homo habilis'' --]] whose spaceship crashed on Earth millions of years ago. It is speculated that the radiation from their power plants accelerated their evolution into new species. This is easily one of the largest ArtisticLicenseBiology ever taken by Niven, who usually makes extremely hard science-fiction.

** Planet Guling from Season 6 also has dinosaurs to keep with its OneMillionBC theme.

* Bochi from ''Anime/YuGiOhGoRush'' is [[StarMakingRole Manya Atachi's]] pet dog who turns out to be an alien from the Bow Wow Wow Cluster. Not only can he change from his dog form to his [[BeastMan humanoid form]], but he learned the Wicked Dog technique that allows him to use PuppyDogEyes to weaken an opponent's defenses before attacking them.

* Milla Basset from ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' looks and behaves like an Earth dog, [[spoiler:and is revealed to be originally from Lord Brevon's home planet as revealed in the [[VideoGame/FreedomPlanet2 sequel]]]].

* Milla Basset from ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' looks and behaves like an Earth dog, [[spoiler:and is revealed to be originally from Lord Brevon's home planet as revealed in the [[VideoGame/FreedomPlanet2 sequel]]]].

[[folder:Film —- Live-Action]]

* A variation in Creator/LarryNiven's ''{{Literature/Protector}}'': [[spoiler:all primates, including humans,]] are distant descendants of a group of [[spoiler:Pak -- known to palaeontologists as ''Homo Habilis'' --]] whose spaceship crashed on Earth millions of years ago. It is speculated that the radiation from their power plants accelerated their evolution into new species. This is easily one of the largest ArtisticLicenseBiology ever taken by Niven, who usually makes extremely hard science-fiction.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The Jokaero are a race almost identical to orangutans. Aside from their knowledge of technology, they're pretty much just apes, even though they were created millenia before earth apes by the [[AbusivePrecursors Old Ones]].