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Artiodactyla is an order of placental mammals composed of even-toed ungulates – hooved animals which bear weight equally on two of their five toes with the other toes either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing posteriorly – as well as their descendants, the aquatic cetaceans. Members of this order are called artiodactyls.
Comparison of even-toed ungulate and cetaceans genetic material has shown that the closest living relatives of whales and hippopotamuses is the paraphyletic group Artiodactyla. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Dan Graur and Desmond Higgins were among the first to come to this conclusion, and included a paper published in 1994. [ 9 ]
The evolution of cetaceans is thought to have begun in the Indian subcontinent from even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla) 50 million years ago (mya) and to have proceeded over a period of at least 15 million years. Cetaceans are fully aquatic mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla and branched off from other artiodactyls around 50 mya.
The family Balaenidae, the right whales, contains two genera and four species. All right whales have no ventral grooves; a distinctive head shape with a strongly arched, narrow rostrum, bowed lower jaw; lower lips that enfold the sides and front of the rostrum; and long, narrow, elastic baleen plates (up to nine times longer than wide) with fine baleen fringes.
The name Whippomorpha is a combination of English (wh[ale] + hippo[potamus]) and Greek (μορφή, morphē = form). [2]Some attempts have been made to rename the suborder Cetancodonta, due to the misleading utilization of the suffix -morpha for a crown group, [6] as well as the risk of confusion with the clade Hippomorpha (which consists of equid perissodactyls); [7] however Whippomorpha ...
Entelodontidae is an extinct family of pig-like artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates) which inhabited the Northern Hemisphere (Asia, Europe, and North America) from the late Eocene [1] to the early Miocene epochs, about 38-19 million years ago.
Ichthyolestes is the smallest pakicetid, approximately 29% smaller than Pakicetus, and has been considered “fox-sized.” [9] They retain many features typical of terrestrial Eocene artiodactyls, including long and gracile limb bones, a fused sacrum, small mandibular foramen, and no cranial telescoping.
The evolution of cetaceans is thought to have begun in the Indian subcontinent from even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla) 50 million years ago (mya) and to have proceeded over a period of at least 15 million years. [2] Cetaceans are fully aquatic mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla and branched off from other artiodactyls around 50 mya.