The nine species of chevrotain, also known as mouse deer, make up the family What does and does not belong to each family is determined by a taxonomist. Similarly for the question if a particular family should be recognized at all. Often there is no exact agreement, with different taxonomists each taking a different position. There are no hard rules that a taxonomist needs to follow in describing or recognizing a family Tragulidae. Chevrotains are small, secretive creatures, now found only in the tropical forests of Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people (as of 2009, see table) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.72% of the world's human population, India Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated here, while Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Sri Lanka As a result of its location in the path of major sea routes, Sri Lanka is a strategic naval link between West Asia and South East Asia.[citation needed] It has also been a center of the Buddhist religion and culture from ancient times and is one of the few remaining abodes of Buddhism in South Asia, including Ladakh, Bhutan and the Chittagong Hill, and South-east Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic and volcanic activity. They are the only living members of the infraorder Tragulina.

The word 'chevrotain' itself is French French is a Romance language spoken as a first language by about 136 million people worldwide. Around 190 million people speak French as a second language, and an additional 200 million speak it as an acquired foreign language. French speaking communities are present in 57 countries and territories. Most native speakers of the language live in, and can be translated as 'little goat'. The Telugu Telugu is a Dravidian language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is the official language of Andhra Pradesh, one of the largest states of India. It is also one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of the Republic of India and was conferred the status of a Classical language by the Government of India. The mother tongue of the majority of name for the animal is "Jarini Pandi", which literally means "a deer and a pig".[citation needed] The Konkani (Mangalore, India) name for it is "Barinka"

The Sinhala Sinhala and also known as Helabasa is the native language of the island Sri Lanka, and the language of the Sinhalese, who make up the largest ethnic group of Sri Lanka. It belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages name meeminna (Sri Lankan As a result of its location in the path of major sea routes, Sri Lanka is a strategic naval link between West Asia and South East Asia.[citation needed] It has also been a center of the Buddhist religion and culture from ancient times and is one of the few remaining abodes of Buddhism in South Asia, including Ladakh, Bhutan and the Chittagong Hill sub species Moschiola memmina) roughly translates to 'mouse-like deer'.

Contents

Biology

The family was widespread and successful from the Oligocene The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly uncertain. The name Oligocene comes from the Greek ὀ (34 million years ago) through the Miocene The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words μείων (meiōn, “less”) and καινός (kainos, “new”) and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea (about 5 million years ago), but has remained almost unchanged over that time and remains as an example of primitive ruminant Physiologically, a ruminant is a mammal of the order Artiodactyla that digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the animal's first stomach, then regurgitating the semi-digested mass, now known as cud, and chewing it again. The process of rechewing the cud to further break down plant matter and stimulate digestion is called " form. Chevrotains have a four-chambered stomach to ferment tough plant foods, but the third chamber The omasum, also known as the bible, the fardel, the manyplies and the psalterium, is the third compartment of the stomach in ruminants. Though its functions have not been well-studied, it appears to primarily aid in the absorption of water, magnesium, and the volatile fatty acids produced by rumen fermentation, that have not been absorbed into is poorly developed. Like other ruminants, they lack upper incisors, and give birth to only a single young. In other respects, however, the chevrotains have primitive features, closer to nonruminants such as pigs. They do not have horns or antlers, but both sexes possess enlarged upper canines In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dogteeth, fangs, or eye teeth, are relatively long, pointed teeth. However, they can appear more flattened, causing them to resemble incisors and leading them to be called incisiform. They evolved and are used primarily for firmly holding food in order to tear it apart, and [1]. The male's are prominent and sharp, projecting on either side of the lower jaw. Chevrotains have short, thin legs, which leave them lacking in agility, but also helps to maintain a smaller profile to aid in running through the dense foliage of their environment. Other pig-like features include the presence of four toes on each foot, the absence of facial scent glands, premolars The premolar teeth or bicuspids are transitional teeth located between the canine and molar teeth. In humans, there are two premolars per quadrant, making eight premolars total in the mouth. They have at least two cusps. Premolars can be considered as a 'transitional tooth' during chewing, or mastication. It has properties of both the anterior with sharp crowns, and the form of their sexual behaviour and copulation.[1]

The largest member of the family is the water chevrotain The water chevrotain , also known as the fanged deer, is a small ruminant found in tropical Africa. It is the largest of the ten species of chevrotains, evolutionarily primitive even-toed ungulates which are similar to deer but are barely larger than small dogs. The water chevrotain is found mostly in coastal West Africa and the rainforests of of Africa, at about 80 cm in length and roughly 10 kilograms. It is regarded as the most pig-like and primitive of the four. The remaining three all prefer rocky forest habitats. The lesser mouse deer The Lesser Mouse-deer or Kanchil is a species of even-toed ungulate in the Tragulidae family. It is found in Indochina, Burma (isthmus of Kra), Brunei, Cambodia, China (S Yunnan), Indonesia (Kalimantan, Sumatra, and many small islands), Laos, Malaysia (peninsular Malaya, Sarawak, and many small islands), Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is the of Southeast Asia is the smallest of all ungulates Ungulates are several groups of mammals, most of which use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving. They make up several orders of mammals, of which six to eight survive. There is some dispute as to whether Ungulata are a cladistic (evolution-based) group, or merely a phenetic group or folk taxon (, at a mature size as little as around 45 cm (18 inches) and 2 kg (4.4 lb).

Chevrotains are solitary animals, and usually interact only to mate. The young are weaned Weaning is the process of gradually introducing a mammal infant, either human or animal, to what will be its adult diet and withdrawing the supply of its mother's milk at three months of age, and reach sexual maturity at between five and ten months, depending on species. Parental care is relatively limited. Although they lack the types of scent glands found in most other ruminants, they do possess a chin gland for marking each other as mates or antagonists, and, in the case of the water chevrotain, anal and preputial glands for marking territory. Their territories are relatively small, on the order of 13-24 hectares, but neighbors generally ignore each other, rather than competing aggressively.[1]

All four species depend for their survival on the retention of their fast-dwindling forest habitat and restriction of the bush meat trade. Some of the species (2 Asian and 1 African) show a remarkable affinity with water, often remaining submerged for prolonged periods to evade predators or other unwelcome intrusion. This has also lent support to the idea that whales evolved from water-loving creatures that looked like small deer.[2]

Classification

Ancient Chevrotains

Painting of Dorcatherium.

There are 6 extinct chevrotains genera[3] including:

The Hypertragulidae were closely related to the Tragulidae.

References

  1. ^ a b Dubost, G. (1984). Macdonald, D.. ed. The Encyclopedia of Mammals. New York: Facts on File. pp. 516–517. ISBN 0-87196-871-1.
  2. ^ "Aquatic deer and ancient whales". BBC News. 2009-07-07. http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8137000/8137922.stm. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  3. ^ Farooq, U., Khan, M.A., Akhtar, M. and Khan, A.M. 2008. Lower dentition of Dorcatherium majus (Tragulidae, Mammalia) in the Lower and Middle Siwaliks (Miocene) of Pakistan. Tur. J. Zool., 32: 91-98. http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/zoology/issues/zoo-08-32-1/zoo-32-1-14-0612-5.pdf
  4. ^ Israel M. Sánchez; Victoria Quiralte; Jorge Morales; Martin Pickford (2010). "A new genus of tragulid ruminant from the early Miocene of Kenya". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 55 (2): 177-187.
  5. ^ Métais, G., Chaimanee, Y., Jaeger, J.-J. & Ducrocq S. 2001. New remains of primitive ruminants from Thailand: evidence of the early evolution of the Ruminantia in Asia. Zoologica Scripta. 30, 231-248. http://www.thaiscience.info/Article%20for%20ThaiScience/Article/5/Ts-5%20new%20remains%20of%20primitive%20ruminants%20from%20thailand%20evidence%20of%20the%20early%20evolution%20of%20the%20ruminantia%20in%20asia.pdf

Show All>>

 

The above information uses material from Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
This page was last archived by our server on Sat Sep 4 04:30:07 2010. [ refresh local cache ]
Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.


Zoo weighs further testing - Topeka Capital Journal
cjonline.com
Zoo weighs further testing - Topeka Capital Journal
Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:40:57 GMT+00:00
Topeka Capital Journal A chevrotain , similar to this one, died Friday during preshipment screening for transfer to the Bronx Zoo. It had been housed in the Topeka Zoo's rain ...
Google News Search: Chevrotain,
Sat Sep 4 04:30:11 2010
chevrotain gif
4to40.com
chevrotain gif
125px x 127px | 2.60kB

[source page]

The chevrotain or mouse deer is a small ruminant mammal in the mammalian order Artiodactyla of the family Tragulidae Much larger than a mouse and not really a deer it is classified in its

Yahoo Images Search: Chevrotain,
Sat Sep 4 04:30:12 2010
Alimentando Cotia em casa Joacaba
youtube.com
Alimentando Cotia em casa Joacaba

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:14:39 PDT

Alimentando Cotia com uma bolacha de mel. Ela e muito docil e chegou a menos de meio metro de distancia. Elas convivem com os cachorros, gatos e ... youtube.com.

Google Videos Search: Chevrotain,
Sat Sep 4 04:30:12 2010