Ruminantia
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| Ruminantia Fossil range: Late Eocene? to Recent |
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Tragulidae |
The biological suborder Ruminantia includes many of the well-known large grazing or browsing mammals: among them cattle, goats, sheep, deer, and antelope. All members of the Ruminantia are ruminants: they digest food in two steps, chewing and swallowing in the normal way to begin with, and then regurgitating the semi-digested cud to re-chew it and thus extract the maximum possible food value.
Note that not all ruminants belong to the Ruminantia. Camels and llamas are among the exceptions, a suborder known as Tylopoda. Also, there are a number of other large grazing mammals that, while not strictly ruminants, have similar adaptations for surviving on large quantities of low-grade food. Kangaroos and horses are examples.
- ORDER CETARTIODACTYLA
- Suborder Suina: pigs and peccaries
- Suborder Tylopoda: camels and llamas
- Suborder Whippomorpha: whales and hippopotamus
- Suborder Ruminantia
- Family †Amphimerycidae
- Infraorder Tragulina (paraphyletic)
- Family †Prodremotheriidae
- Family †Hypertragulidae
- Family †Praetragulidae
- Family Tragulidae: chevrotains, 6 living species in 4 genera
- Family †Leptomerycidae
- Family †Archaeomerycidae
- Family †Lophiomerycidae
- Infraorder Pecora
- Family Moschidae: musk deer, 4 living species in one genus
- Family Cervidae: deer, 49 living species in 16 genera
- Family Giraffidae: giraffe and okapi, 2 living species in 2 genera
- Family Antilocapridae: pronghorn, one living species in one genus
- Family Bovidae: cattle, goats, sheep, and antelope, 135 living species in 48 genera
- Family †Gelocidae
- Family †Climacoceratidae
- Family †Palaeomerycidae
- Family †Hoplitomerycidae
