artiodactyl

—artiodactylous, adj.

/ahr'tee oh dak"til/, adj.

1. Zool. having an even number of toes or digits on each foot.

n.

2. a hoofed, even-toed mammal of the order Artiodactyla, comprising the pigs, hippopotamuses, camels, deer, giraffes, pronghorns, sheep, goats, antelope, and cattle. Cf. perissodactyl.

[1840-50; < NL; see ARTIO-, DACTYL]

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▪ mammal

Introduction

       Selected breeds of pigs Selected Breeds of Sheep Selected breeds of goats Selected breeds of beef cattle Selected breeds of dairy cattleany member of the mammalian order Artiodactyla, or even-toed ungulates, which includes the pigs (pig) (see table (Selected breeds of pigs)), peccaries (peccary), hippopotamuses (hippopotamus), camels (camel), chevrotains, deer, giraffes (giraffe), pronghorn, antelopes (antelope), sheep (see table (Selected Breeds of Sheep)), goats (goat) (see table (Selected breeds of goats)), and cattle (see beef (Selected breeds of beef cattle) and dairy (Selected breeds of dairy cattle) tables). It is one of the larger mammal orders, containing about 150 species, a total that may be somewhat reduced with continuing revision of their classification. Many artiodactyls are well-known to man, and the order as a whole is of more economic and cultural benefit than any other group of mammals. The much larger order of rodents (Rodentia) affects man primarily in a negative way, by competing with him or impeding his economic and cultural progress.

General features

Abundance and distribution

      Artiodactyls were once the dominant herbivores (plant-eating mammals) of almost every continent. They are an important link in the chain by which the sun's energy, having been used by green plants, is made available to other forms of life. They tend to be medium- or large-sized animals. If they were any smaller they would compete with rabbits and the larger rodents, and if they were larger they would compete with elephants and rhinoceroses, the largest of terrestrial herbivores. The success of artiodactyls has depended on skeletal adaptations for running and on the development of digestive mechanisms capable of dealing with plant foods; none is adapted to flying, burrowing, or swimming. The individual species tend to be fairly narrowly adapted, in comparison with other mammals, but many of them nonetheless have broad distributions.

      Native artiodactyls are absent only from the polar regions and from Australasia, but many have been introduced into Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, the position of medium and large herbivores is occupied by kangaroos. Through most of its evolutionary history, the order was absent from South America; only within the last few million years have some groups entered that continent. The occurrence of the majority of living artiodactyls in the Old World is a recent phenomenon; a considerable variety once inhabited North America.

      The order Artiodactyla contains nine families of living mammals, of which the Bovidae (antelopes, cattle, sheep, and goats) is by far the largest, containing nearly 100 species. There are five Eurasian and four African species of pigs (family Suidae) and two Central and South American species of piglike peccaries (Tayassuidae). The two hippopotamus species (Hippopotamidae) are African. The more familiar large species were until recently widespread throughout Africa south of the Sahara and in the Nile Valley; the pygmy hippopotamus has a restricted distribution in West Africa. The camel group (Camelidae) was formerly abundant in North America, the now extinct North American stocks having produced the camelids of South America (wild guanaco and vicuña, domestic llama and alpaca) and the Old World dromedary and Bactrian camel.

      The remaining artiodactyls (i.e., the suborder Ruminantia (ruminant)) are all ruminants (cud chewers), the most primitive of which are the chevrotains (Tragulidae), with three species in Asia and one, the water chevrotain, in West Africa; the chevrotains are clearly remnants of a group that was once more numerous and widespread. Deer (Cervidae) are basically Eurasian and have not spread into sub-Saharan Africa, although they have reached the Americas. There are about 30 species, the greatest number being concentrated in South America and tropical Asia. The giraffe and the okapi (Giraffidae), two distinctive African species, are closely related to deer. The pronghorn (Antilocapridae), although sometimes called pronghorn antelope, is not a true antelope; it is the only survivor of a stock of ruminants that was very successful in the later part of the Tertiary Period in North America (about 2,500,000 to 65,000,000 years ago). The family Bovidae is primarily African and Eurasian, with a few members in North America. Bovids are advanced artiodactyls, many of which live in open grassland and semi-arid areas.

Importance to humans

      Artiodactyls have long been exploited by humans for economic purposes. At Olduvai Gorge in East Africa there is clear evidence of the use of antelopes for food almost 2,000,000 years ago. In Europe during Paleolithic times (about 30,000 years ago) Cro-Magnon man depended heavily on the reindeer. By this time the use of animals other than as food had become established; skins were used as clothing and footwear, and bones were used as tools, weapons, and accessories.

      The domestication of animals was a major advance in human history. Domestication of herd animals probably arose gradually, perhaps before agriculture. Domesticated goats and sheep are first known from the Near East at some date close to 7000 BC. Cattle and pigs were domesticated at some subsequent date but certainly before 3000 BC. In South America the llama, now used for transport, and the alpaca, which provides a source of wool, were developed from guanacos by the Incas or their predecessors. The dromedary (Camelus dromedarius), domesticated in Arabia, was introduced into the Southwestern United States, southwestern Africa, and inland Australia in the 19th century. A large feral population now exists in Australia.

      In addition to providing meat, milk, hides, and wool, artiodactyls have served man in a number of other ways. In Kashmir, the underfleece, or pashm, of the Siberian ibex (Capra ibex) and of local domesticated goats has been used as the basis for the manufacture of cashmere shawls. In southwestern France, pigs have been used to locate underground truffles (the fruiting bodies of certain edible fungi).

      No group of mammals is more extensively hunted than the artiodactyls. Sport hunting of various deer supports a multimillion-dollar industry in North America and Europe. In many cultures hunting has been reserved for monarchs or the aristocracy. In the centuries after the Norman Conquest of England, the forest law provided severe punishment for the slaughter of deer and boars. Père David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus (Père David's deer)) of China now survives only because it was preserved first in the hunting park of the emperors of China and later by the Duke of Bedford after the slaughter of the Chinese herds at the end of the 19th century.

      Wild ungulates were the primary source of meat for human populations long before the appearance of modern man. Prehistoric man hunted the large mammals of his environment with an ever increasing effectiveness that was certainly instrumental in his survival. The extent to which man was involved in the extinction of some of the larger Pleistocene (Pleistocene Epoch) animals (i.e., those that were abundant 10,000 to 2,500,000 years ago) is still being investigated. There is now known to have been a wave of late Pleistocene extinction of large mammals, including artiodactyls; in North America this wave reached its zenith about 9000 BC. Many animals also became extinct in Africa, where long-horned buffalo and large relatives of hartebeests survived until very recently. More of the large mammals have survived in Africa than elsewhere, but the reason for their survival is not known. A second, probably final, wave of extermination of the larger mammals has taken place with the spread of European culture and firearms in the past 300 years. It has been marked by wanton slaughter and has ultimately produced an interest in conservation. It now seems, however, that the unprecedented demands on the environment being made by rapidly expanding human populations will result in a nearly complete extinction of large wild mammals.

Natural history

Behaviour

Migration

      Many artiodactyls undertake seasonal migrations between their breeding grounds and feeding areas or between different feeding areas. They can then take advantage of the seasonal changes in different areas. This means that larger populations, and hence a larger biomass (i.e., the total weight of all individuals in an area), can be supported than if all passed their lives in one area. The North American mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) comes from its summer pastures at high altitudes as the first snow falls and returns at the end of winter, several weeks after the snow has melted.

Social behaviour (Social behaviour in animals)

      Although the popular image of artiodactyls is one of great herds numbering thousands of individuals, some species are solitary, and many others form only small family groups. The maternal family unit, in fact, is the most cohesive one, providing the basis for herd formation. Most artiodactyls are more or less social, and grazing forms may be found in especially large aggregations. It appears that the practice of aggregating gives protection, favouring those members of the species that are the most active contributors to the gene pool (thus the most available to natural selection), since the individuals most frequently taken by predators are old, solitary males, males maintaining territories, and animals of either sex separated from the herd.

      Social facilitation (the instigation of collective behaviour) takes place in herds. After one animal flees, all of the others flee, and the predator may thus not catch any. Social facilitation may also promote a restricted season for births; this helps survival of the young by denying these easy-prey individuals to predators through much of the year, and keeps the predator population lower than if young were available throughout the year. Another advantage of herding is that the older generation in a herd can guide migrations to water, feeding areas, or mating grounds.

      Females and young are usually in herds separate from those of the younger males, but territorial (the older, proven) males may accompany the females. There are some variations of this behaviour. In the Eurasian roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), for example, the basic unit includes the doe, her litter of two, and often the young of the previous year. During the rutting (mating) season males associate with females in heat but do not gather harems. The female herds of red deer (Cervus elephas) are separate from the males except in the breeding season, when the stag will defend his female herd against other males. Among cattle and related species, the males associate with the females and young, but the bulls are ranked below a so-called master bull, each defending its place within the rank order. Female hippopotamuses and their young form a group in water and have a favourite resting and basking sandbank. The males have their resting places around this area. Each male's rank in the social hierarchy determines how close to the females he may be.

 There can be some flexibility of social organization within a species. During the rutting season the male Rocky mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus; see photograph—>) makes little effort to herd females within a fixed area if there is little snow, but he does drive off other males. When there is much snow, he neither fights other males nor defends individual females.

      Forest-dwelling artiodactyls often live singly, as does the okapi (Okapia johnstoni) of central Africa; individuals meet only for mating. Female moose (Alces alces) with calves are intolerant of their own young of the previous year and of adults, so even small herds do not form.

      The territory of an animal is an area from which the possessor attempts to exclude other individuals of the same species (and occasionally other species). An animal in an area lacking its own scent is more timid and ready to flee. Among solitary artiodactyls the territory holder defends an area sufficient to meet his needs for food and shelter. Among social artiodactyls the territorial system is interwoven with breeding activities, and territories are normally defended only by certain males. Other males are driven off, and a percentage of males are prevented from mating.

      The most simple territorial organization among artiodactyls is that of the common wild pig (Sus scrofa (boar)), which lives within a home range including resting, feeding, drinking, and wallowing places. There is little sign of territorial (territorial behaviour) defense, and the herd (called the sounder) may move to a new area. At the other extreme, male Uganda kob antelopes (Kobus kob) hold territories, for breeding only, that are as small as 15 to 30 metres (50 to 100 feet) in diameter. There are 30 to 40 territories on the breeding ground of a herd, and groups of females and young move about the territories despite the efforts of individual males to detain them. The semi-arid Serengeti plains of northern Tanzania contain nomadic aggregations of blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), males of which defend temporary territories only while an aggregation remains stationary.

      In territorial defense an aggressive encounter between males is generally preceded by visual signalling of intentions. Chital deer (Cervus axis), for example, have several sorts of threatening displays. When sharp, potentially lethal horns (horn) appeared in early ruminants, intimidating displays rather than combats would doubtless have been favoured. Horns or antlers eventually functioned to maintain head contact during struggles rather than to bruise, slash, or gore. This stylized fighting, in which the competing males interlock horns or antlers and try to “outwrestle” each other, minimizes the danger of killing an opponent of the same species (conspecific). It evolved in two ways: further development of the wrestling, found in stags and some of the antelopes, and ramming, as in sheep. In sheep the horns are the sole organs of display. They increase in size throughout life and parallel the dominance order of the males, so that unnecessary fighting is minimized. Ramming may have intermediate forms; goats, for example, butt with a sideways hooking motion. In the fighting of hornless artiodactyls, such as pigs, the combatants may be badly mauled or even killed. The fighting behaviour of camels retains primitive elements of biting, kicking, and neck wrestling.

Reproduction

      Many advanced artiodactyls have elaborate courtship behaviour, a regular component of which is for the male to sniff or lick the female's urine, and afterward to raise his head slightly with upcurled lips. This behaviour, which has been called flehmen, apparently enables the male to recognize females in heat. In the mating ceremonies of tragelaphine antelopes (kudus, bushbucks, and others) the male follows the female, nuzzling her neck several times. When he mounts, he lays his neck along hers so that their heads touch. In Thomson's gazelle (Gazella thomsoni), following the flehmen behaviour, the male runs close behind the female and finally taps her hindleg with his foreleg. Similar leg contact also occurs in some other antelopes. Its function could be to test the female's readiness to mate, to habituate her to contact, or to heighten her readiness to mate. It appears to be equivalent to the neck contact of tragelaphines. During mounting, the male Thomson's gazelle holds his head high and does not touch the female's flanks with his forelegs; the pair may continue walking. This is probably a more advanced pattern of events than that in tragelaphines. The kob antelope has elaborate displays after mating. These and the specialized sexual displays seem to be a consequence of this species' tightly clustered territories on the mating grounds. Another pattern occurs in the normally solitary Indian hog deer (Cervus porcinus); as many as 20 or 30 aggregate loosely in a certain area, then females and males leave in pairs and usually remain together until they have mated. Mating in artiodactyls often intensifies toward dawn and dusk.

      Gestation periods vary and are related in part to the size of the animal. They range from four months in the small chevrotain to 14 months in the Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) and over 14 months in the giraffe. Females of normally gregarious species become solitary a few days before giving birth. The female chital, or axis deer, for example, remains near a patch of dense bush and high grass to which she can retreat if endangered. The female collared peccary (Dicotyles tajacu) withdraws to a burrow. The European wild pig gives birth in a rough nest.

      In temperate regions, birth takes place in spring or early summer, and in tropical areas there are often more births during or just after the rainy season. The absence of a well-defined breeding season in a species may indicate less rigorous environmental conditions, which sometimes vary in different parts of a species' range. Warthogs (warthog) have one restricted breeding season in most of eastern and southern Africa, while elsewhere two seasons or year-round breeding have been recorded. The breeding season of the waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) is continuous in Uganda, but in Zambia its breeding season shows a sharp peak at the height of the rains.

      Most modern artiodactyls have one young at each birth, but there are some well-known exceptions among ruminants. The Chinese water deer (Hydropotes inermis) bears twins or triplets, but during gestation carries even more fetuses; early records (now known to be incorrect) of large litters were based on observations of dead pregnant females containing the large number of fetuses. The mule deer, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), roe deer, pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus), four-horned antelope (Tetracerus quadricornis), and saiga (Saiga tatarica) commonly bear twins. In the white-tailed and mule deer and in the saiga, a higher percentage of twins are borne by the older females; this is probably true in other species. The number of young is usually three in the warthog, five in the European wild pig (boar), and two in peccaries.

      The female wild pig almost ignores her young, which free themselves from their birth membranes and seek a teat. Female camels show comparatively little maternal attention and do not eat the afterbirth (the fetal membranes and placenta). Ruminants generally eat the afterbirth, as well as the dung and urine of the young, thus helping to prevent discovery of the young by predators. Licking of the young tends to facilitate its recognition by the mother. An artiodactyl is normally precocious (well developed) at birth and may weigh one-tenth as much as its mother. An extreme example of precocity is the wildebeest calf, which rises within five minutes of birth, follows its mother within another five minutes, and can move as fast as an adult in 24 hours. Young deer fawns “freeze” during danger but rejoin the herd when the danger is long past or when retrieved by the mother.

      Pigs and hippopotamuses are weaned after a few months, but among higher artiodactyls, lactation lasts longer. Wildebeest, for example, suckle for almost a year, although they start to eat grass when only a few days old. This may either maintain a bond between parent and offspring and form the base for larger social groupings or help to “develop” the four-chambered stomach. Higher artiodactyls eat soil when they begin to eat solid food, probably to establish a normal flora and fauna in the rumen (the first of the four stomach chambers).

Locomotion

      Artiodactyls are preyed upon by carnivores and therefore need speed and agility to escape death. They have an added disadvantage in the sheer weight of their very large stomachs, which they need in order to digest plant food. Running ability reaches an extreme in advanced artiodactyls living in open country. The hippopotamus, with an adult weight of 2,500 to 3,000 kilograms (5,500 to 6,600 pounds), is the only living artiodactyl big enough to need heavy, pillar-like limbs for support.

      In the normal walking of artiodactyls the legs move in the following order: (a) left front, (b) right rear, (c) right front, (d) left rear. This basic pattern is masked in faster walking or trotting by each foot being lifted off the ground before the one ahead of it in the sequence reaches the ground, resulting in telescoping the first (a and b) and second (c and d) pairs of movements. In galloping or fast running the two front legs leave the ground one immediately after the other, then the two back legs. The chief propulsive force in locomotion comes from the back legs, except in the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), in which the front legs provide the main propulsive power.

      Camels often amble, both legs of each side moving together, and the giraffe and the okapi always use this walking gait. Here the middle two (b and c) and the first and last (a and d) actions of the normal walking pattern occur together. The giraffe, having a short body and great height, could not adopt the normal ruminant gait without tripping. The long neck moves back and forth in time with the strides and helps smooth the movement. Galloping by the giraffe is of the normal ungulate type.

      Artiodactyls living among bush or rocky cover may develop a bounding sort of gait in which the legs are pulled up very sharply during each stride. Deer and some antelopes are examples. When walking, species in such habitats are supported by the diagonally opposite legs for a greater length of time in each stride than are fast-running, open-country ruminants. This is a more primitive stable position and allows an easier leap from hidden danger. Some bovids (bovid), notably goats in Eurasia and the klipspringer (Oreotragus oreotragus) of Africa, are especially agile on rocky slopes and precipitous ground.

 The maximum speeds of some artiodactyls are: warthog, 48 kilometres (30 miles) per hour; camel, 14–16 kmph (9–10 mph); giraffe, a little over 48 kmph (30 mph); Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer; see photograph—>), 56 kmph (35 mph); Thomson's gazelle, 80 kmph (50 mph).

Ecology

Food habits

      Most artiodactyls are closely tied to the resources of their environment. They are dependent, for example, on feeding areas not being covered by too much snow or shrivelled under a drought, and on the regulating effects of fire or other herbivores on the seasonal succession of vegetation. Various grazing species feed on grass at different heights. Browsers, those that feed on the foliage of shrubs and trees, show more extreme variation in feeding height, the maximum being that of the giraffe.

      Herbivorous animals need less initiative and intelligence to collect food than do the meat-eating, hunting carnivores, but digestion is more difficult. Advanced artiodactyls have evolved the ability to bolt food and to ruminate it (chew it more thoroughly) at a later time or while resting in an area where they may be less obvious to predators and can conserve energy. Tropical artiodactyls frequently have adaptations for water conservation, having developed to a high degree internal physiological regulation ( homeostasis).

      Primitive artiodactyls were probably omnivorous but favoured plant foods, a characteristic still found in pigs. The latter dig with the snout and, to a lesser extent, with the front legs and upper tusks (canine teeth). The wart-hog of Africa (Phacochoerus aethiopicus) has a modified method of gathering food. When food is scarce it forages for young grass shoots under very low bushes; its tusks and localized thickening on its skin protect the eyes and muscles from thorn damage, and small incisors enable it to pluck food.

      Hippopotamuses (Hippopotamus amphibius), although they spend a great deal of time submerged in lakes or rivers, do not feed in the water. They graze at night, wandering over well-used trails, sometimes far from water, often damaging crops.

      Most members of the camel family are found in arid habitats. The vicuña (Lama vicugna) of the South American Andes lives at high altitudes where it grazes on soft grasses and herbs. It has much the same food requirements as domestic sheep.

      Chevrotains live in dense undergrowth close to water or in marshes, where they browse on soft vegetation, roots, and tubers, following a way of life probably not unlike that of their ancestors.

      The other ruminants browse or graze. They may take many plant species in the course of the year, but at any one season a large part of the diet consists of only five or six plants. Some ruminants are strongly specialized. The reindeer of the Arctic (Rangifer tarandus (reindeer)), for example, eats a variety of sedges, grasses, and herbaceous plants in summer but, as the long winter approaches, gradually shifts to a diet of lichens. It uses its front feet to scrape snow away from lichens to a depth of about 60 centimetres (two feet). The females are unique among deer in possessing antlers, which are thought to help them get scarce food in late winter by driving off the males that have by then shed their antlers. Reindeer may eat lemmings. The red deer, on the other hand, has catholic feeding habits. In woods it browses on lichens, berries, fungi, and the leaves of most deciduous trees; in open country it eats grass, heather, berries, and lichens. Shrubs and trees are used more in winter. When the red deer lives in the same areas as other ruminants it can be a serious competitor for food.

      Grasses form a substantial part of the diet of many ruminants. Young grass consists of about 5 percent protein, 1 percent fat, 3 percent minerals, and 20 percent carbohydrates; the remaining percentage is water. The most noticeable changes as grass ages are an increase in carbohydrate content to 75 percent and a large decrease in the amount of water. Such food, especially when coated with silica, as are many grasses, or when covered with dust, would be impossible for nearly all nonruminant herbivores to eat or digest. The major evolutionary trend in ruminants has been to make use of grasses and grasslands, and the higher ruminants have evolved largely in adaptive balance with one another. This adaptive balance was shown during a study of the change from plains to thickets of scrub growth in an area in the eastern Congo over a period of about ten years. There was an accompanying decrease in numbers of antelopes and warthogs, no change in buffalo, and an increase in elephants and hippopotamuses.

      There is not usually a one-to-one dependence of any artiodactyl species on one plant. The plant species that constitute the major part of the diet may vary with the season, and similar parts of different plants may be eaten in preference to other parts of the same plant. Food resources in an area are thus parcelled out among the various artiodactyls present. Sometimes behavioral differences minimize competition between closely related species in the same area. A study has shown that in central Africa the roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus), a grazer, favours open areas with taller, ranker perennial grasses and is more or less sedentary within a small area; the sable antelope (H. niger), also a grazer, prefers savanna woodland or the edges of open areas, and herds follow a more or less cyclic annual route over an area of about 500 square kilometres (200 square miles). When pasturage is restricted, sheep will cut grass very short, and goats will damage trees and bushes. An American zoologist, George B. Schaller, has observed that, in Kanha Park in central India in the hot season, blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) continue to graze on grass shoots in open areas; chital deer seek out tender grass blades, especially along forest edges, and also feed on leaves and fruits; barasingha (Cervus duvauceli) eat dry and moderately coarse grass along ravines; sambar deer (Cervus unicolor) browse on leaves and crop coarse grasses in the forest; and gaur (Bos gaurus) graze on tall, coarse grass and break down saplings to get at the leaves. The choice of habitat also varies: chital avoid steep terrain and forests with an unbroken canopy; blackbuck require less water than the others and thus remain in drier regions; sambar and gaur are less specialized in habitat requirements, and both are active primarily at night; barasingha prefer reed beds but also enter forests and climb hills.

      It has also become evident that grazing successions are one of the mechanisms that enable the maximum use to be made of environmental resources. On the Serengeti plains, for example, the wildebeest grazes on ground already covered by the zebra and leaves the grazed grass in a condition suitable for the Thomson's gazelle. Interactions take place between artiodactyls and some plant species. It has been noted in the Tarangire area of northern Tanzania that Acacia seedlings germinate only where the impala (Aepyceros melampus) has left its dung. In parts of southern Peru plants growing on or close to the dung of the vicuña are different from those of the surrounding pasture.

      Artiodactyls often favour the boundary zone between habitats. In Rhodesia, Lichtenstein's hartebeest (Alcelaphus lichtensteini) is usually found at the edge of clearings adjacent to woodland.

Areas of distribution

      Some artiodactyls have surprisingly small ranges; Hunter's hartebeest (Beatragus hunteri) and the dibatag (Ammodorcas clarkei), for example, are found in two very restricted areas in eastern Africa. Others have extremely large ranges, such as the roe deer, which lives from the western shores of Europe to the eastern shores of Asia, or the red deer, which is found in a similar band across Eurasia and is regarded by many as conspecific with the North American wapiti or elk (otherwise called Cervus canadensis). Sometimes a considerable area may be occupied by a chain of related species, an example being the oryxes; (oryx) the beisa and gemsbok (races of Oryx gazella) occur in South and East Africa, the scimitar-horned oryx (O. dammah) in West Africa, and the Arabian oryx (O. leucoryx) in Arabia.

      It is well known that climate is one of the factors limiting the ranges of artiodactyls. A number of South African antelopes differ, at the species level, from their ecological counterparts farther north in Africa. The bontebok and blesbok, races of Damaliscus dorcas, are found in the south and the sassaby (D. lunatus) farther north; the black wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou) occurs in the south and the blue wildebeest (C. taurinus) farther north. This probably is a result of climatic or climatically influenced factors; each species evidently functions best in a certain temperature and aridity range. Wide distributions can occur more easily along lines of latitude than they can by spanning the tropics to temperate or polar regions. Species that cross lines of latitude are often associated with mountain chains, examples being the Rocky mountain goat, with its wide latitudinal range in western North America, and the goral (Nemorhaedus goral ), found from Indochina to the Amur River. Climatic effects on distributions sometimes occur with regard to altitude. In Central Asia, the goa (Gazella picticaudata) is found in valleys from 3,000 to 3,660 metres (10,000 to 12,000 feet) above sea level, the chiru (Pantholops hodgsoni) and the yak (Bos mutus) are on the very high steppe between 5,500 and 6,100 metres (18,000 and 20,000 feet).

      South America has a more impoverished artiodactyl fauna than Africa, being limited to deer and camelids. This arises in part from the late arrival of the artiodactyls (deer in middle to late Pliocene, about 4,000,000 years ago, camelids perhaps a little later) and in part because a number of large rodents compensate for the shortage of large herbivores. The cervids in South America have not shown the same capacity for radiation in open country as have bovids in the Old World.

      The areas of distribution and numbers of individuals are determined by complicated interweaving of effects not yet completely understood. Bloodsucking flies are thought to be the main reason that red deer in Scotland ascend to higher feeding grounds in June, and reindeer are afflicted by horse flies (Tabanus) and other dipteran pests (pest). It is questionable whether the level of artiodactyl populations is controlled by predation, by availability of food, by reproductive rate, by disease, by climate, or by competition, insofar as these can be regarded as separate factors. It is known that undernourishment increases the susceptibility of an animal to the effects of parasites. If such an infected animal, say a pig, is caught by a leopard, it would be an oversimplification to assign a single reason for its death; it could have died from starvation, parasites, or predation. There is no evidence that artiodactyls are affected more than marginally by predators during most of their mature lives. Mortality is greatest among juvenile and aged animals. In a study of central African warthogs, it was estimated that a 60 percent loss occurred during the first six months of life in an expanding population and 95 percent in a declining one. Although predation was thought to be the main cause, another was the fact that the piglets had only limited control over their body temperatures and were thus more at the mercy of environmental temperature change. Food supply may sometimes be decisive, either directly or through the indirect action of intermediate agencies such as drought. The year 1961 lacked long rains, causing a severe shortage of forage in the Nairobi Game Park in Kenya. Many antelopes died of starvation, populations fell, and those of the blue wildebeest had not recovered nine years later, perhaps for reasons unconnected with the initial drought. Disease has generally been considered to have only a secondary importance in regulating numbers.

      Thickness of the snow cover in winter is a very important factor for Asian artiodactyls. The saiga, for example, cannot move in snow deeper than about 40 centimetres (16 inches), and the wild sheep Ovis ammon (argali) in snow deeper than 60 centimetres (24 inches), at the most. The snow may have other effects; a layer of ice on top of snow may damage an animal's legs and weaken the animal to the extent that it is caught by a predator. Saiga may be unable to dig through even a shallow layer of compacted snow. hoarfrost on vegetation is especially dangerous when prolonged or when it occurs in consecutive winters, though elk may escape the worst effects by feeding in winter on bark and high shoots. Massive periodic mortalities among Palearctic (Eurasian) ungulates in winter have been known since ancient times. The saiga has adapted to these crises by migrating great distances in a short time away from snowstorms or from areas where fodder is short. It also has a very rapid maturation to a reproductive state, ensuring that populations will build up after heavy mortalities.

      Population density over the range of a species is affected by social behaviour, such as the effects of territoriality, dispersal of the young, and whether the species lives in herds. Fecundity may be reduced in overcrowded conditions by effects on reproductive control mechanisms, reduced viability of the young, or retarded maturation.

Form and function

General structure

      Artiodactyls have larger stomachs (stomach) and longer intestines than carnivorous animals because plant food is less easily digested than meat. The necessity of escaping predators and the handicap of a heavy digestive system have resulted in limb bone adaptations.

      In all artiodactyls the main weight-bearing axis of the leg passes through the third and fourth toes together. This has been called paraxonic support and is contrasted with the mesaxonic limb support of the other great order of herbivorous mammals, the perissodactyls (rhinoceros, horse, tapir), in which the weight-bearing axis passes through the third or central toe alone. As artiodactyls evolved there was increasing development of the third and fourth toes and a parallel decline of the second and fifth toes flanking them. Progressive simplification of limb extremities has characterized the evolution of the artiodactyls, and even in the earliest known artiodactyls, the pollex and hallux (corresponding to the big toe and thumb of man) were already rare.

      The other main morphological characteristic of artiodactyls is that the astragalus, one of the bones in the ankle, has upper and lower rounded articulations (areas of contact of bones) and no constricted neck, instead of simply one rounded articulation above a neck, as in other mammals. This character is so basic to artiodactyls that it has not developed very much within the known history of the order, having already been present in long extinct members. The artiodactyl astragalus also has an articulation on its rear surface for the calcaneum (heel bone). The three articulations are in nearly parallel planes, allowing the astragalus to rotate vertically.

      Other features of the limbs, skull, and dentition distinguish artiodactyls. The ulna (posterior forearm bone) and fibula (posterior bone of the lower leg) have become reduced. The humerus, the upper bone of the foreleg, is large and has a large protrusion, the greater trochanter, to which muscles are attached. The femur, the upper bone of the hindleg, has a large greater trochanter and a second, lesser trochanter, but lacks the third trochanter characteristic of perissodactyls. There are typically 19 thoracic and lumbar (upper and lower back) vertebrae. The separate lumbar region of the spine is retained with its forwardly directed transverse processes (lateral projections on the vertebrae). There is no clavicle, or collarbone, in the shoulder girdle. The hip girdle shows fore-and-aft elongation and a well-developed ischium (upper anterior bone of the pelvis). There is never a penis bone.

      The large tongue is very mobile and can be thrust forward. The brain is moderately developed, with folding of the surface of the cerebral hemispheres variably developed, often less in small artiodactyls than in large ones. The olfactory region of the brain is well developed and hearing is acute. The brains of earlier artiodactyls, such as the extinct entelodonts, were smaller than those of later forms. There are often scent glands on the head and body.

Specializations of the head

      The skulls of pigs and peccaries lack a complete bony bar behind the eye (postorbital bar) as in most suiform artiodactyls and the early camels. The hippopotamuses, most camels, all ruminants, and two fossil suiform groups (entelodonts and oreodonts) have a complete postorbital bar. Any surface exposure of the periotic bone (bone around the ear) on the skull is called the mastoid, and skulls without such a surface exposure are described as being amastoid. Amastoid skulls are found in most suiform groups (including entelodonts, anthracotheres, and all living suiform groups); mastoid skulls occur in some early suiform groups, oreodonts, and all remaining artiodactyls that have lived since the end of the Eocene Epoch (about 38,000,000 years ago). Hippopotamuses have many modifications for aquatic life—large lungs, eyes and nostrils on top of the head, nostrils that can be closed by muscular control, and small ears. They are able to remain submerged for at least five minutes.

Horns (horn) and antlers

 Pigs, peccaries, hippopotamuses, camels, and chevrotains have no horns or antlers. In the early Miocene, Old World ruminants related to giraffes and deer first developed such appendages. The majority of deer have antlers, defined as solid, bony, branched outgrowths of the frontal bones, present only in the males (but also in female reindeer) and shed seasonally. They are not covered by a horny sheath but, during a growth period of about four months, have a fine-haired skin or “velvet.” The antlers have two basic branches, the anterior or brow tine, and the posterior branch or beam. The brow tine is unbranched, except in Pére David's deer, in which both it and the beam are branched, the brow tine forming the dominant part of the antler. Antlers are specialized sex characters used for fighting by males in the rutting season and to scrape or slash at trees and bushes for territorial marking (see photograph—>).

      A study of the chital deer showed that antlers increase in size up to the seventh year, remain at a constant size until the ninth year, then decline. The horn of bovids consists of a hollow, unbranched horny sheath (formed of modified skin like fingernails and toenails) that fits over a bony core; horns are often present on both sexes. If such a horn is accidentally lost it is not regenerated; this is unlike the situation in deer, in which normal shedding is followed by regrowth. In the giraffe, but not in the okapi, horn growth is mainly from the parietal bone. The pronghorn has horns in both sexes. The sheaths are shed each year after the breeding season, and new ones develop under the old ones. The sheath is two pronged, but the underlying bony core is unbranched.

Teeth

      There is a complete set of teeth in early artiodactyls and in modern pigs of the genus Sus, consisting on each side of three upper and lower incisors, an upper and lower canine, four upper and lower premolars, and three upper and lower molars. There has been a tendency toward reduction of the front teeth and development of a gap (diastema) between them and the back teeth. There has been very little tendency for the premolars to molarize, and the first premolar often disappears. Early forms had five-cusped upper molars, but the fifth cusp (protoconule) disappeared early.

      Members of the suborder Suiformes have the full complement of incisors and canines, except for peccaries, which lack the lateral pair of upper incisors. Hippopotamuses have continuously growing incisors and canines, the lower canines being very large.

      The canines of pigs grow continuously. In this group the canines are weapons for offense and defense, the sharp cutting edges of the lower canines being maintained by wear against the uppers. Young camels retain the full complement of front teeth, with three incisors and one canine in the upper and lower jaws; the upper incisors are extremely small. In the upper jaw of the adult only the rear incisor and canine are present. The vicuña has continuously growing lower incisors.

      The molars of pigs are low crowned (except those of the warthog) and have many cusps; those of peccaries are more simple. Peccaries have one less premolar than pigs; camels also have reduced premolars. Chevrotains have rather flattened lower premolars but have incipiently selenodont molars; i.e., in which the cusps are drawn out into longitudinal crescents. Premolars of ruminants are wider, and the molars definitely selenodont. In many bovids and the pronghorn, but not in giraffes or deer, the molars are markedly high crowned.

Limb adaptations for fast running

      Adaptations for fast running reach an extreme in advanced artiodactyls living in open country. In addition to the increased rotation of the astragalus, which increases the propulsive thrust at the ankle and enables a quicker recovery at the end of a stride before starting the next one, there are other features that help to increase the speed of striding. The legs of most camels and ruminants have lengthened, especially in the lower parts; the number of toes, or digits, in the feet is reduced from the original mammalian five, and ruminants walk on the tips of their toes. The muscles (muscle) are inserted high on the legs; only tendons pass lower, so that a large mass is not concentrated near the tip of the limb, where its inertia would restrict speed of movement. Muscle contraction is fast. The movement of each leg is almost limited to a fore-and-aft plane. Emphasis on the fore-and-aft articulations between the limb bones is especially pronounced in many bovids, the alternating bones in the wrist (carpus) and ankle (tarsus) taking the strain of impact on uneven ground.

      Pigs have four toes on each foot, but only two of them touch the ground. Their limbs are short and not very advanced. Peccaries have lost the outer accessory hind hoof in the back leg. All four toes of each foot of hippopotamuses touch the ground, and the terminal phalanges have nail-like hoofs. The toe bones of camels are completely enclosed in hardened, horny hoofs, and lateral toes spread across the broad pad which aids in walking on desert sands. Chevrotains have four hoofed toes on each foot; deer often retain the first and second phalanges (sections) of their lateral toes; but all bovids have lost the bones of their lateral toes.

      The fibula bone in the back leg and the ulna in the front leg have been reduced in different artiodactyl lineages. Both are still complete in pigs and hippopotamuses, although the fibula is slender. In most other artiodactyls, the lower end of the fibula has survived, and the upper end is occasionally found, but always less noticeably. In camels the ulna has fused with the radius. Pigs, hippopotamuses, and camels have separate navicular and cuboid bones in the ankle, and magnum and trapezoid bones in the wrist; other artiodactyls have a fused naviculo-cuboid and magnum-trapezoid. In chevrotains and some deer, the adjacent ectocuneiform is sometimes joined with the naviculo-cuboid.

      The artiodactyl method of limb support through the third and fourth toes, with the attendant lengthening of lower limb bones, has frequently led to a fusion of the two principal metacarpal and metatarsal (midfoot) bones in the forelegs and hindlegs, respectively, forming cannon bones. The nearest approach to a cannon bone in the living Suiformes is the proximal fusion (i.e., at the upper ends) of the two central metatarsals in peccaries. Camels have front and rear cannon bones, but the fusion does not extend right to the bottom, the lower articular surfaces being less pulley-like than in ruminants. There is a hind cannon bone in all chevrotains and, in addition, a front one in Asiatic species (Tragulus). All other living artiodactyls have front and rear cannon bones. Lateral metatarsals and metacarpals survive in chevrotains; splints of lateral metacarpals often survive in bovids; and either upper or lower splints of metacarpals in deer.

Modifications of the skin

      Pigs are covered with rather sparse, coarse hairs, and peccaries with a denser coat of coarse hairs. Except for those of the warthog and the babirusa (Babyrousa babirussa), piglets have longitudinal stripes or flecks. Hippopotamuses are naked. Tragulids have light-coloured flecks and stripes in their fur. The coats of camelids and deer are much thicker in species living toward the polar regions, at great heights, or in deserts, but are not noted for striking colours or patterns. Many young deer and the adults of a few species have pale flecks and stripes, and some South American deer have reddish fur. Antelopes have a wider range of coat colours, and some are strikingly marked; e.g., the oryxes, bontebok, and blesbok of southern Africa.

Scent glands

      External glands occur in various places on artiodactyls. Preorbital glands, immediately in front of the eyes, are present in the giant forest hog (Hylochoerus meinertzhageni), in all cervids except the roe deer, and, among the bovids, in duikers, many neotragines, gazelles and their allies, and the hartebeest group. These glands are apparently required in small forest forms and have disappeared in many, but not all, open-country forms. In some, the glands are definitely connected with territorial marking; a firm object is marked by rubbing, soft vegetation by swinging the head gently from side to side. Foot, or pedal, glands are present in the African bush pig (Potamochoerus porcus), camels, tragulids, the pronghorn, some bovids, and on the back legs only of most American deer.

      Inguinal (belly) glands are found in bovids, there being two in sheep, saiga, chiru, gazelles, duikers, and blackbuck, and four in members of the tribes Reduncini and Tragelaphini. Carpal (wrist) glands are present in some pigs, some gazelles and allies, and the oribi (Ourebia ourebi). Glands in other positions are rather less frequent, but postcornual ones (behind the horns) occur in the Rocky Mountain goat, the pronghorn, and the chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), supraorbital ones in muntjacs (muntjac) (several species of Muntiacus). There are jaw glands in the pronghorn; neck glands in camels; dorsal glands on the back of peccaries, pronghorn, and springbok; and preputial glands (in front of the genital region) in several pigs, grysbok (Raphicerus melanotis), and the musk deer. Tail glands are found in musk deer, pronghorn, and goats; tarsal glands in pronghorn and American deer; and metatarsal glands in camels, some deer, and the impala. Pronghorn, blackbuck, gazelles, and oribi are thus particularly well equipped with glands. The use of such glands, apart from the use of preorbital glands in some species for territorial marking, is a matter for conjecture. Chital deer, when alarmed, thump the ground several times with their hind feet, which possess glands; the scent remaining on the ground may function as a danger signal. In general, mammals often mark with their glands when they are threatening other individuals of their own species.

Digestive system

      The higher artiodactyls feed only on plant matter, which consists largely of cellulose and other carbohydrates and water. This necessitates adaptations of the structure and functioning of the stomach and intestines. Even pigs have enlarged stomachs—they have a pouch near the cardiac orifice (the upper opening) of the stomach—and in peccaries the stomach is more complicated. In hippopotamuses the stomach is divided into four compartments, and micro-organisms ferment food as part of the digestive process. Unlike pigs, hippopotamuses have lost the cecum (a blind pouch) further on in the gut.

      In the most advanced ruminants, the much enlarged stomach consists of four parts. These include the large rumen (or paunch), the reticulum, the omasum (psalterium or manyplies)—which are all believed to be derived from the esophagus—and the abomasum (or reed), which corresponds to the stomach of other mammals. The omasum is almost absent in chevrotains. Camels have a three-chambered stomach, lacking the separation of omasum and abomasum; the rumen and reticulum are equipped with glandular pockets separated by muscular walls having sphincters (valves) and glands. The esophagus opens into the rumen, not into the area between rumen and reticulum; these and other differences suggest that camels evolved the ruminating habit independently of the true ruminants. The total stomach of the domestic ox (Bos taurus) occupies nearly three-quarters of the abdominal cavity, and, even in medium-sized cattle, the rumen alone can have a capacity of 95 to 285 litres (25 to 75 gallons), having undergone a tremendous growth in early life, with the changeover from a milk diet.

      Food taken into the rumen is later regurgitated into the mouth and completely masticated, then swallowed again and passed to the reticulum, omasum, and abomasum. The regurgitation and chewing in the mouth is called rumination.

      In the rumen many different species of minute protozoans (animals) and bacteria live without free oxygen. The digestion of the cellulose of plant cell walls is the main function of the fauna and flora in the rumen, since mammalian digestive juices are incapable of digesting cellulose. The contents of the plant cells are thus released for digestion. Large volumes of saliva are secreted into the rumen to help digestion. Soluble products of microbial action, mainly fatty acids, are absorbed through the rumen wall. In the omasum, some fatty acids and 60–70 percent of the water are absorbed; in the abomasum gastric juice containing hydrochloric acid is secreted, as in an ordinary mammalian stomach.

      In the rumen any ingested protein is degraded into fatty acids and ammonia; (ammonia) the ammonia and other simple nitrogen-containing substances are used by the micro-organisms for their own cell-protein synthesis. These organisms are ultimately digested in the abomasum and small intestine, thus providing the ruminant with protein.

      Many artiodactyls are adapted to living in conditions of water shortage. The best known and one of the most spectacular examples of this is the camel. Its body temperature can fluctuate according to the outside temperature, thus minimizing water loss through sweating; it excretes rather dry dung and a concentrated urine (i.e., high in urea and low in water) and is not seriously weakened by as much as a 25 percent dehydration in its body, since water is not withdrawn from the bloodstream and the continuing circulation avoids any buildup of excessive internal temperatures. The thick coat hinders the inward transference of heat from the environment (the temperature of which may often exceed the animal's body temperature); a thirsty camel can take in water very rapidly. Oryxes and gazelles are antelopes noted for needing little water, the dorcas gazelle (Gazella dorcas) in the Sudan depending on leaves of Acacia bushes for its water. The zebu (a form of domesticated cattle) needs less water than most temperate climate breeds.

Reproductive specializations

      The testes (testis) of male artiodactyls descend outside the body cavity but may regress into the abdomen in the nonbreeding season. Female pigs have many teats, but ruminants have only two to four (although domestic cattle occasionally have as many as six). Among the bovids, the alcelaphines (hartebeests, wildebeests, and relatives), gazelles, and some caprines (sheep, goats, and relatives) have two, the rest have four.

      The unborn mammal within its mother breathes, feeds, and excretes through an organ called the placenta, which is connected with the tissues of the mother's uterus (womb) wall. Hippopotamuses and pigs have an epitheliochorial placenta, a layer of fetal tissue merely pressed close against the uterus wall, but camels and ruminants possess a syndesmochorial placenta, in which the epithelium of the maternal tissues is eroded to facilitate intercommunication. This is an advance over the epitheliochorial placenta, but the artiodactyls are not particularly advanced, when compared with other mammals, in which there may be still closer association of maternal and fetal blood vessels (endothelial and hemochorial placentas). Even in many syndesmochorial placentas the uterus lining may be wholly or partly restored before the end of pregnancy. Although there is no erosion of maternal tissues in the epitheliochorial placenta, the capillaries beneath the fetal and maternal surface layers may pass just beneath the surface layers, making them thin. The actual fingerlike processes (villi), through which the placenta contacts the uterus, are evenly distributed (“diffuse” placentas) in hippopotamuses, pigs, camels, and tragulids; in higher artiodactyls they are in pockets or groups called cotyledons (“cotyledonary” placentas). It is interesting that there are few of these cotyledons in deer—for instance only five in Père David's deer—but many in giraffes and bovids (up to 160 or 180 in giraffes and goats). The musk deer (Moschus moschiferus) is exceptional among deer in retaining a diffuse placenta.

Evolution and paleontology

      The artiodactyls can be traced back to a probable descent from a group of early generalized mammals called condylarths, and were certainly distinct by the Eocene Epoch, which ended about 38,000,000 years ago. Fossil artiodactyls can be more or less convincingly classified in three suborders; the more primitive Suiformes, centred around pigs, the Tylopoda, centred on camels, and the Ruminantia or ruminants. The most primitive artiodactyls are the suiform group Palaeodonta, which had four functional toes on each foot, primitive, low-cusped cheek teeth, and the typical artiodactyl astragalus. The artiodactyls became more prominent in the Oligocene (between about 38,000,000 and 26,000,000 years ago) with a decline of the then dominant perissodactyls, and the later history of artiodactyls appears as successive waves of groups, each better adapted than its predecessors to the changing environment. In the suiform line, the earlier palaeodonts are succeeded by other groups such as the entelodonts, giant “pigs” of the European and North American Oligocene, characterized by very large skulls (some nearly a metre [three feet] long), very small brains, and a large, bony flange below the eyes. The functionally two-toed ruminants succeeded four-toed suiforms in the Miocene, and within the Old World ruminants of the bovid subfamily Caprinae, the zenith of the tribe Caprini, for example, followed that of the mainly Pliocene tribe Ovibovini.

      The artiodactyls had an interesting history in North America through the Tertiary Period. Some forms, such as the entelodonts, were shared with the Old World, but others were characteristic of North America. One very prominent New World family was the merycoidodonts (or oreodonts), which lasted until the early Pliocene (about 6,000,000 years ago). They had somewhat piglike proportions, short faces, a large upper canine and a caniniform first lower premolar, and selenodont molars. A close relative, Agriochoerus, had clawed feet, the function of which remains uncertain.

      Camelids evolved in North America and, at or toward the end of the Tertiary, spread into South America and into the Old World. By the end of the Pleistocene they all became extinct in their homeland, just as horses did. The hypertragulids were a mainly Oligocene group of chevrotain-like forms related to the Protoceratidae. The latter had horns above their noses, a position unique among artiodactyls, as well as in the usual position. The North American Miocene (Miocene Epoch) (26,000,000 to 7,000,000 years ago) produced some ruminants, such as Blastomeryx, that are hard to distinguish from the early palaeomerycine relatives of giraffes and deer in the Old World, which, with the North American groups, constitute the family Palaeomerycidae. Some developed horns, and the dromomerycine Cranioceras even had a third horn above the back of its skull. During the Miocene and Pliocene there finally appeared relatives of the surviving pronghorn, an example being Merycodus. Many of these North American groups have parallels with Old World groups, and the subject of North American artiodactyl evolution is of great interest. Only further finds will indicate whether Blastomeryx, the dromomerycines, Merycodus, and the pronghorns evolved from hypertragulids already in North America or sprang from some immigrant ruminant and, if the latter, whether the supposed hypertragulid Leptomeryx could be such an immigrant ruminant. It is uncertain whether the hypertragulids are nearer the tragulines or the camels, and how close the oreodonts are to the anthracotheres. Of the great New World radiation there survived after the Pleistocene only three or four camelid species and the pronghorn (deer and bovids in the Americas are immigrants), whereas in the Old World as little as 200 years ago, Eurasia and Africa had abundant deer and antelopes.

      Until the Miocene there were some archaic artiodactyls in Europe, the xiphodonts, which have cautiously been taken as tylopods, and the cainotheres and anoplotheres, which are classified near anthracotheres.

      A possible ruminant ancestor was Archaeomeryx from the upper Eocene of China, a small animal that already had a fused naviculo-cuboid bone in the ankle. Tragulids occurred in Africa and Eurasia back to the Miocene, and the more advanced gelocids are known from the upper Eocene and lower Oligocene. At the end of the Oligocene, the first ruminants began to appear with teeth more advanced than those of tragulids. From early in the Miocene they began to be recognizable as giraffes, deer, or antelopes, although the last were relatively uncommon before the late Miocene. Much remains to be learned about the detailed early history of these groups. Several different giraffids lived in later Miocene and early Pliocene times, but the group has since declined to only two species. Deer gradually acquired more complicated antlers, which became very large in some lineages. Different subfamilies of bovids originated in Eurasia and Africa, and it is of zoogeographic interest that representatives of African subfamilies have been found as fossils in northern India and Pakistan.

Classification

Annotated classification

      The following classification is principally based on that of American paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson (Simpson, George Gaylord), with alterations in the bovid subfamilies, in the placing of early relatives of giraffes and deer in a giraffoid subfamily Palaeomerycinae, and in the placing of hypertragulids and protoceratids with camels. Groups indicated by the dagger (†) are known only as fossils.

Order Artiodactyla

 Cloven-hoofed ungulates, the major group of herbivorous mammals. Weight supported mainly through 3rd and 4th toes; astragalus with upper and lower articulations rounded. Stomach compound and, with intestines, enlarged for plant digestion. About 150 species.

      Suborder Suiformes

 Complete dentition, bunodont (low-cusped) molars, short legs, 4-toed feet are among their important characteristics.

      †Infraorder Palaeodonta

 Eocene to lower Miocene. Primitive, small-brained artiodactyls. Two superfamilies, Dichobunoidea and Entelodontoidea, with 5 and 3 families, respectively, and collectively about 30 genera.

      Infraorder Suina

 Lower Oligocene to present. Includes the living pigs, peccaries, and their likely ancestors and extinct relatives.

      Family Suidae (pigs)

 Lower Oligocene to present; Old World. Small to moderate size; shoulder height to about 100 cm (39 in.). Coarse hair. Omnivorous, with sharp-edged tusks. Five Recent and about 22 fossil genera.

      Family Tayassuidae (peccaries)

 Differ from pigs by having 1 fewer incisor and premolar, smaller canines, less advanced cheek teeth; hindleg with a cannon bone, more complicated stomach and more densely haired coat.

      Infraorder Ancodonta

 

      †Family Anoplotheriidae

 Eocene and Oligocene; Europe; uncertain relationships.

      †Family Anthracotheriidae

 Eocene to Pleistocene. Mainly Old World, a few in North American Oligocene. Large, with cheek teeth showing beginnings of selenodonty.

      Family Hippopotamidae (hippopotamuses)

 Middle Pliocene to present. Thought to be derived as late as the Pliocene from anthracotheres. Old World, now restricted to Africa. One large (shoulder height to 170 cm [67 in.]; weight to 3,000 kg [6,600 lb]) and one small species (height to 90 cm [35 in.]). Feed on land but frequently resort to water.

      †Family Cainotheriidae

 Mainly Oligocene; small European forms of uncertain relationships.

      †Infraorder Oreodonta

 

      †Family Merycoidodontidae (North American oreodonts)

 Eocene to early Pliocene. No suppression of upper incisors, an incisiform lower canine, selenodont cheek teeth, short faces and short limbs.

      †Family Agriochoeriidae

 Eocene to lower Miocene. Close to the above family but with clawed feet.

      Suborder Tylopoda (tylopod)

  Some reduction of upper incisors, reduced premolars, selenodont cheek teeth; cannon bones present. Feet became 2-toed early in the geological history of the group.

      †Family Hypertragulidae

 Upper Eocene to lower Miocene; North America. Like Old World Tragulina (see below) but with a canine-like first lower premolar. Fused naviculo-cuboid in the ankle.

      †Family Protoceratidae

 Oligocene to lower Pliocene; North America. Some with horns on the top and at the front of the skull. Later ones with hindleg cannon bone. Generally considered close to hypertragulids, but failed to fuse navicular and cuboid bones.

      Family Camelidae (camels and lamoids)

 Upper Eocene to present; now a relict group, represented in southern South America, in Asia, and in North Africa. Red blood corpuscles oval. Gallbladder absent. The hump of the 2 Old World camels is composed of fibrous connective tissue and fat.

      †Family Xiphodontidae

 Eocene and lower Oligocene of Europe. Already 2-toed, despite their antiquity, and tentatively placed with the camels.

      Suborder Ruminantia (ruminant) (ruminants)

  Upper incisors lacking; lower canine incisor-like; cheek teeth selenodont. Fused magnum-trapezoid bone in the wrist. Two-toed feet evolved within suborder.

      Infraorder Tragulina

 

      †Superfamily Amphimerycoidea

 

      †Family Amphimerycidae.

 European Eocene and Oligocene of Europe; poorly known. Asian Archaeomeryx, usually placed in the Hypertragulidae, but may fit here; it retained upper incisors and had a fused naviculo-cuboid in the hind leg.

      †Family Gelocidae

 Eocene-Oligocene of Europe and Asia.

      Superfamily Traguloidea

 

      Family Tragulidae (chevrotains)

 Miocene to present. Sabre-like upper canines in males; incipiently selenodont molars. Bony carapace often develops above the pelvic girdle in males.

      Infraorder Pecora

 Mostly with horns or antlers and without upper canines. Hollowed auditory bullae. Four-chambered stomach.

      Superfamily Giraffoidea

 

      †Family Palaeomerycidae

 Upper Oligocene to upper Pliocene; North America, Europe, Asia, Africa. Three subfamilies, the Palaeomerycinae (Old World basal stock for giraffes and deer), Blastomerycinae, and Dromomerycinae (the last two New World).

      Family Giraffidae (giraffes and okapi)

 Miocene to present; Old World, now confined to Africa. Living giraffes long-necked and long-legged; the okapi more compact. Giraffes may be up to 5.5 m (18 ft) in total height. Extinct relatives including the large, short-legged, and grotesquely horned sivatheres. Living species have no gallbladder.

      Superfamily Cervoidea

 

      Family Cervidae (deer)

 

      Subfamily Moschinae (musk deer)

 Pleistocene and present; Asia. One recent species, the musk deer (Moschus moschiferus) with sabre-like upper canines, gallbladder present (lacking in most other deer).

      Subfamily Muntiacinae (muntjacs)

 Lower Miocene to present; southern Asia. Includes the living muntjacs (Muntiacus), with small, 2-pronged antlers above a long, skin-covered base; and tufted deer (Elaphodus cephalophus) with tiny antlers. Eurasian fossil genus Dicrocerus had larger, 2-pronged antlers. All have large, curved upper canines.

      Subfamily Odocoileinae

 Pliocene to present. Characterized by the persistence of the lower ends of the lateral metacarpals, thickly haired skin between the hoofs, and in all except the moose a large interdigital gland in at least the hindfoot. The vomer is fused far back posteriorly with the palate in the American deer and in the reindeer. Includes moose (Eurasian elk), reindeer, roe deer, perhaps the Chinese water deer (which has long canines but no antlers), and the deer of North and South America other than the wapiti (American elk), a cervine.

      Subfamily Cervinae

 Pliocene to present. Top ends of the lateral metacarpals persist. Smooth skin between the hoofs; interdigital glands lacking. Branching of beam of antler differs from that in New World deer; red deer and wapiti, fallow deer, chital, sika, Père David's deer.

      Superfamily Bovoidea

 

      Family Antilocapridae (pronghorn and merycodonts)

 Miocene to present; North America. Smooth, branched horns consisting of hollow sheaths over bony cores; only sheaths shed annually; in fossil Merycodontinae, 1 or more burrs at base of cores. Teeth high-crowned.

      Family Bovidae (cattle, sheep and goats, antelopes)

 Wild cattle, sheep, and goats were ancestral to domestic livestock not differing in any fundamental characters from antelopes. Great variety in horn shape. Many with high-crowned teeth.

      Subfamily Bovinae (cattle and some antelopes)

 Miocene to present. African tribe Tragelaphini, with keeled, spiral horns and not very advanced teeth, includes eland, kudu, nyala, and bushbuck. Tribes Boselaphini and Bovini, mainly Eurasian, former including the Indian nilgai, the 4-horned antelope, and some extinct forms, the latter including cattle, bison, and buffaloes. Bovini are descended from extinct Boselaphini; large size, up to 180 cm (71 in.) at the shoulder. Teeth specialized for grazing. Animals wallow frequently.

      Subfamily Cephalophinae (antelopes)

 Mostly small, with tiny horns set toward the back of the head. Gallbladder lacking. Generally forest-living. African duikers.

      Subfamily Hippotraginae (antelopes)

 Moderate-sized, stocky, mainly grazing antelopes; shoulder height 60–160 cm (24–63 in.). High-crowned teeth. Tribe Hippotragini includes the roan, sable, oryx, and addax antelopes; and Reduncini the reedbuck, kobs, lechwes, and waterbucks. Oryx and addax inhabit arid areas; others near water with adjacent cover or high grass. All except nearly extinct Arabian oryx are now native only to Africa, but the subfamily formerly occurred in India.

      Subfamily Alcelaphinae (antelopes)

 African wildebeests, hartebeests, topis, and several extinct lineages. Long-faced, plains-living, grazing antelopes. Sometimes included in the Hippotraginae.

      Subfamily Antilopinae (antelopes)

 Tribe Neotragini includes some small African antelopes, and Antilopini include gazelles, springbok, and the Indian blackbuck. Graceful, long-legged antelopes of arid, open country. Subfamily may also include the saiga and the Tibetan chiru (tribe Saigini), hitherto classified with Caprinae.

      Subfamily Caprinae (sheep, goats, and relatives)

 Mainly Eurasian. Moderate-sized, shoulder height often 90–100 cm (35–39 in.). High-crowned teeth. Agile animals; many species in mountains or on steep, rocky slopes. Tribe Caprini comprises sheep and goats; Ovibovini the musk-ox (Ovibos), the Chinese takin, and some bizarre extinct forms; Rupicaprini the chamois, serow, goral, and Rocky Mountain goat.

Critical appraisal

      The great 18th-century classifier Carolus Linnaeus (Linnaeus, Carolus) recognized the camels and ruminants as associated but placed some nonartiodactyls with them. It was the French naturalist Henri de Blainville who, at the beginning of the 19th century, first recognized the complete order of artiodactyls as it is accepted today. Nine discrete groups exist among the living forms: pigs, peccaries, hippopotamuses, camels, chevrotains, deer, giraffes, pronghorn, and bovids; their classification presents no great problems, apart from a few genera. Fossils, however, bring confusion to various schemes.

      The relationship of North American Tertiary artiodactyls to those of the Old World is a basic question in the study of their zoogeography, history, and classification. It can be agreed that the camels evolved in North America and are as old as the tragulines, which in the Old World were ancestral to ruminants. Most paleontologists today believe that the hypertragulids, protoceratids, and oreodonts were related to the camels, but others have linked the first two groups with the tragulines and the oreodonts with the anthracotheres. Other questions affecting the higher levels of artiodactyl classification are the placing of the North American native ruminants and whether the earliest Old World pecorans should be taken as giraffoids or cervoids.

      The subdivisions of the Bovidae remain controversial. Modifying a classification proposed by German zoologist Max Schlosser, some authorities have grouped the Bovinae, Cephalophinae, and Hippotragineae as the Boödontia and the Alcelaphinae, Antilopinae, and Caprinae as the Aegodontia, to indicate phyletic lines believed to have arisen early in bovid history. Boödonts and aegodonts have evolved differently in Africa and Eurasia, and there is much to be said for developing a classification that reflects these geographical relationships. Until additional evidence of phylogenetic relationships is available, however, the modified version of Simpson's classification above will remain favoured by most taxonomists.

Alan William Gentry

Additional Reading

I.W. Cornwall, Bones for the Archaeologist, rev. ed. (1974), on the morphology and identification of bones including artiodactyls; J. Dorst and P. Dandelot, A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Africa, 2nd ed. (1972), giving summarized descriptions, habits, ecology, and distribution maps for all African artiodactyls; R.F. Ewer, Ethology of Mammals (1968, reissued 1973), a comprehensive text with much information on artiodactyl behaviour; V. Geist, “The Evolution of Horn-Like Organs,” Behaviour, 27:175–214 (1966), on the functional implications of horn shape; G.G. Simpson, “The Principles of Classification and a Classification of Mammals,” Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 85 (1945), which forms the basis for most modern classifications of artiodactyls; T. Haltenorth in W. Kukenthal and T. Krumbach, Handbuch der Zoologie, vol. 8, pp. 1–167, Klassifikation der Säugetiere: Artiodactyla (1963), a weighty classification of artiodactyls (in German); V.G. Heptner, A.A. Nasimovic, and A.G. Bannikov (eds.), Die Säugetiere der Sowjetunion, vol. 1, Paarhufer und Unpaarhufer (1966), a massive work on Eurasian ungulates, most of it dealing with artiodactyls, originally published in Russian in 1961; A. Keast, “Comparisons of the Contemporary Mammalian Faunas of the Southern Continents,” Q. Rev. Biol., 44:121–167 (1969), a review of zoogeography and adaptations, with further references; P.S. Martin and H.E. Wright (eds.), Pleistocene Extinctions: The Search for a Cause (1967), a collection of essays on Pleistocene extinctions involving artiodactyls; D. Morris, The Mammals (1965), a general account with illustrations; G.B. Schaller, The Deer and the Tiger (1967, reprinted 1984), a study of the life of Indian artiodactyls; C.A. Spinage, The Book of the Giraffe (1968), much information well presented for the general reader; W.P. Taylor (ed.), The Deer of North America (1956, reissued 1969), on all aspects of the life of North American deer; J.Z. Young, The Life of Vertebrates, 3rd ed. (1981), containing a chapter on artiodactyls; and F.E. Zeuner, A History of Domesticated Animals (1963), a useful source for much information difficult to find elsewhere.Alan William Gentry

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