Ungulates (meaning roughly "being pawed" or "hoofed animal") are several groups of mammals Mammals are a class of vertebrate, air-breathing animals whose females are characterized by the possession of mammary glands while both males and females are characterized by sweat glands, hair and/or fur, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex region in the brain, most of which use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving. They make up several orders The Latin suffix -formes meaning "having the form of" is used for the scientific name of orders of birds and fishes, but not for those of mammals and invertebrates of mammals, of which six to eight survive. There is some dispute as to whether Ungulata are a cladistic Cladistics is a form of biological systematics that classifies organisms into hierarchical monophyletic groups. It can be distinguished from other taxonomic systems, such as phenetics, by its focus on shared derived characters (synapomorphies). Previous systems usually employed overall morphological similarity to group species into genera, (evolution-based) group, or merely a phenetic In biology, phenetics, also known as numerical taxonomy or taximetrics, is an attempt to classify organisms based on overall similarity, usually in morphology or other observable traits, regardless of their phylogeny or evolutionary relation group or folk taxon A folk taxonomy is a vernacular naming system, and can be contrasted with scientific taxonomy. Folk biological classification is the way peoples make sense of and organize their natural surroundings/the world around them, typically making generous use of form taxa like "shrubs", "bugs", "ducks", "ungulates" (similar, but not necessarily related), because not all ungulates appear as closely related as once believed. Ungulata was considered an order which has been split into Perissodactyla The odd-toed ungulates are browsing and grazing mammals such as horses, tapirs and rhinoceroses whose hooves each feature an odd number of toes. The middle toe on each hoof is also usually larger than its neighbors. Together, odd-toed ungulates form the order Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla The even-toed ungulates form the mammal order Artiodactyla , the group that contains the pigs, peccaries, hippopotami, camels, chevrotains (mouse deer), deer, giraffes, pronghorn, antelopes, sheep, goats, and cattle. They are ungulates whose weight is borne about equally by the third and fourth toes, rather than mostly or entirely by the third as, Tubulidentata The Aardvark (afer: from Africa) is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is sometimes called "antbear", "anteater", "Cape anteater" (after the Cape of Good Hope), "earth hog" or "earth pig". The name comes from the Afrikaans/Dutch for "earth pig" (aarde earth,, Hyracoidea A hyrax is any of four species of fairly small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. They live in Africa and the Middle East, Sirenia Sirenia is an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit swamps, rivers, estuaries, marine wetlands, and coastal marine waters. Four species are living, in two families and genera. These are the dugong (1 species) and manatees (3 species excluding a possible fourth species, the Dwarf Manatee). Sirenia also includes Steller's sea cow,, and Proboscidea Proboscidea is an order containing one living family, Elephantidae, and several recently extinct families, Gomphotheriidae , possibly Stegodontidae (depending on the assignment of Stegodon) and Mammutidae. Elephantidae contains three living species (the African Bush Elephant, African Forest Elephant, and Asian Elephant) and the now extinct mammoth. Members of the orders Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla, and Cetacea The order Cetacea (pronounced /sɨˈteɪʃə/, L. cetus, whale, from Greek) includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Cetus is Latin and is used in biological names to mean "whale"; its original meaning, "large sea animal", was more general. It comes from Ancient Greek κῆτος (kētos), meaning "whale" or " are called the 'true ungulates' to distinguish them from 'subungulates Paenungulata is a taxon that groups some remarkable mammals constituting three orders: Proboscidea , Sirenia (sea cows, including dugongs and manatees), and Hyracoidea (hyraxes, such as the African Rock Hyrax, Procavia habessinica)' (paenungulata Paenungulata is a taxon that groups some remarkable mammals constituting three orders: Proboscidea , Sirenia (sea cows, including dugongs and manatees), and Hyracoidea (hyraxes, such as the African Rock Hyrax, Procavia habessinica)) which include members from the Proboscidea, Sirenia, Hyracoidea, and Tubulidentata orders.[1]
Commonly known examples of ungulates living today are the horse The horse is a hooved (ungulate) mammal, a subspecies of the family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began to domesticate horses around 4000 BCE, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BCE. Although, zebra Zebras are African equids best known for their distinctive white and black stripes. Their stripes come in different patterns unique to each individual. They are generally social animals and can be seen in small harems to large herds. In addition to their stripes, zebras have erect, mohawk-like manes. Unlike their closest relatives, horses and, donkey The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E. africanus. Traditionally, the scientific name for the donkey is Equus asinus asinus based on the principle of priority used for scientific names of animals. However, the International, cattle Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius. Cattle are raised as livestock for meat (beef and veal), as dairy animals for milk and other dairy products,/bison Members of the genus Bison are large even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant species and four extinct species are recognized. The surviving species are the American bison, Bison bison , found in North America, and the European bison, or wisent (Bison bonasus), found in Europe and the Caucasus. While these species are usually, rhinoceros Rhinoceros , often colloquially abbreviated rhino, is a name used to group five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia. Three of the five species—the Javan, Sumatran and Black Rhinoceros—are critically endangered. The Indian Rhinoceros is, camel A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the Bactrian camel has two humps. They are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia, and Central and East Asia, respectively. Both, hippopotamus The hippopotamus or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" (Ιπποπόταμος), is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae (the other is the Pygmy Hippopotamus.) The hippopotamus is the second largest land animal (after the elephant) and the, goat The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep: both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of goat, pig Pigs are a genus of even-toed ungulates within the family Suidae. The name hog most commonly refers to the domestic pig in everyday parlance, but technically encompasses several distinct species, including the wild boar. Swine is a collective noun generally used to describe pigs as a group rather than an individual, however it may often be implied, sheep Domestic sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries. Numbering a little over 1 billion, domestic sheep are the most, giraffe The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. It is covered in large, irregular patches of yellow to black fur separated by white, off-white, or dark yellowish brown background. The average mass for an adult male giraffe is 1,200 kilograms (2,600 lb) while the average, okapi The Okapi is a giraffid artiodactyl mammal native to the Ituri Rainforest, located in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in central Africa. Although the Okapi bears striped markings reminiscent of the zebra, it is most closely related to the giraffe. Unknown to Europeans until 1901, today there are approximately 10,000 - 20,000, moose The moose or common European elk (Europe), Alces alces, is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a "twig-like" configuration. Moose typically inhabit boreal and mixed deciduous forests of the Northern Hemisphere in,elk, deer Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. They include for example Moose, Red Deer, Reindeer, Roe and Chital. Animals from related families within the order Artiodactyla are often also considered to be deer – these include muntjac and water deer. Male (and a few female) deer of all species (except the Chinese Water deer who only, tapir A tapir is a large browsing mammal, roughly pig-like in shape, with a short, prehensile snout. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. There are four species of Tapirs, being the Brazilian tapir, the Malayan tapir, Baird's tapir and the mountain tapir. All four species of tapir are classified, antelope Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species found in the family Bovidae. The term refers to a ‘miscellaneous’ group within the family encompassing the species which are not cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, or goats. A group of antelope is called a herd, and gazelle A gazelle is any of many antelope species currently or formerly in the genus Gazella. Six species are included in two genera which were formerly considered subgenera. The genus Procapra has also been considered a subgenus of Gazella, and its members are also referred to as gazelles; however they are not dealt with in this article.
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The cow displayed every sign of ungulate aggression. The impromptu volunteers not only kept the moose at bay, but did everything possible to alleviate the ...
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Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:33:19 GM
Hmm. Got a bunch of projects and deadlines crunching this month. Will be stopping online information trawling, blogging, and probably reading blogs, for a few weeks or so. If you want me to know something for the rest of the month, ...
