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Most terrestrial ungulates use the hoofed tips of their toes to support their body weight while standing or moving. Two other orders of ungulates, Notoungulata and Litopterna, both native to South America, became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene, around 12,000 years ago. The term means, roughly, "being hoofed" or "hoofed animal".
A member of this family is called a deer or a cervid. They are widespread throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia, and are found in a wide variety of biomes . Cervids range in size from the 60 cm (24 in) long and 32 cm (13 in) tall pudú to the 3.4 m (11.2 ft) long and 3.4 m (11.2 ft) tall moose .
Bovidae is a family of hoofed ruminant mammals in the order Artiodactyla. A member of this family is called a bovid. They are widespread throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, and are found in a variety of biomes, most typically forest, savanna, shrubland, and grassland.
Meridiungulata might have originated in South America from a North American condylarth ancestor, [3] and they may be members of the clade Laurasiatheria, related to other ungulates, including artiodactyls and perissodactyls. [4] It has, however, been suggested the Meridiungulata are part of a different macro-group of placental mammals called ...
Perissodactyla is an order of placental mammals composed of odd-toed ungulates – hooved animals which bear weight on one or three of their five toes with the other toes either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing backwards. Members of this order are called perissodactyls, and include rhinoceroses, tapirs, and horses.
Male and female animals have glands that are exposed when the white hair on the rump stands up. 2-Pyrrolidinone, the major compound in the rump gland has an odor reminiscent of buttered popcorn to humans. The flared rump hair and odor alert adjacent animals of a possible danger. [25] Pronghorns have well developed glands on each hoof.
Mindy Weisberger is a science writer and media producer whose work has appeared in Live Science, Scientific American and How It Works magazine. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account ...
South America's considerable cervid diversity belies their relatively recent arrival. The presence of camelids in South America but not North America today is ironic, given that they have a 45-million-year-long history in the latter continent (where they originated), and only a 3-million-year history in the former. Family: Tayassuidae (peccaries)