UNGULATA
- hoofed mammals.
- Now considered a polyphyletic group.
-
Molecular evidence indicates
the relationship of tenrecs, golden moles, elephant
shrews, aardvarks, and tethytheres ("Paenungulata" - elephants, sirenians, and
hyraxes) into a superorder Afrotheria. Tethytheres and possibly aardvarks had been considered to be
ungulates.
-
Ungulates should now be restricted to
perissodactyls and artiodactyls (including the whales).
-
The Order Cetartiodactyla is based on molecular evidence that hippopotamuses are
more closely related to whales than they are to other artiodactyls.
Early cetacean fossils from Pakistan demonstrate that whales are
artiodactyls
- perissodactyls and artiodactyls from Dr. Monte L.Thies, Sam Houston State University,
with a good discussion of cursorial and feeding adaptations and African Grazing
Succession.
- The
Hoofed Mammals by Christine Janis and Peter Jarman; with a good
discussion of hindgut and foregut fermentation.
- Order CONDYLARTHRA
- Order CETACEA
- Order PROBOSCIDEA
- Order SIRENIA
- dugongs, sea cows, manatees
- Order HYRACOIDEA
- Order TUBULIDENTATA
- Order PERISSODACTYLA
- Horses,Tapirs, Rhinceroses
- Order ARTIODACTYLA
- pigs, hippos, camels, deer, giraffes, cattle
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