What are the characteristics of a Artiodactyla?

Diversity

• Artiodactyls are the most diverse, large, terrestrial mammals alive today.
• Artiodactyls are paraxonic, that is, the plane of symmetry of each foot passes between the third and fourth digits.
• Artiodactyls are divided into 3 suborders.

How are cetaceans related to Artiodactyla?

Cetaceans are fully aquatic marine mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla and branched off from other artiodactyls around 50 mya (million years ago). Cetaceans are thought to have evolved during the Eocene or earlier and to share a relatively recent closest common ancestor with hippopotamuses.

Why are cetaceans ungulates?

Explanation: Dolphins are considered ungulates because they are closely related to artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates). Cetaceans evolved from an even-toed ungulate ancestor. Cetaceans are actually more closely related to even-toed ungulates than odd-toes ungulates (horses, rhinos, zebras) are.

Are cetaceans ruminants?

However, they did not recognize hippopotamuses and classified the ruminants as the sister group of cetaceans….Morphological classification of Artiodactyla.

Is an elephant an ungulate?

Modern hoofed mammals comprise three groups: Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates (swine, camels, deer, and bovines); Perissodactyla, the odd-toed ungulates (horses, tapirs, and rhinoceroses); and Uranotheria, which includes the orders Proboscidea (elephants), Hyracoidea (hyraxes), and Sirenia (manatees and dugongs).

What is the largest Artiodactyla?

The largest whale (and largest mammal, as well as the largest animal known ever to have existed) is the blue whale, a baleen whale (Mysticeti). The longest confirmed specimen was 33.58 m (110.17 ft) in length and the heaviest was 190 tonnes.

Which land animal is the closest cousin to dolphins?

hippopotamus
The closest living relatives of dolphins today are the even toed ungulates such as camels and cows with the humble hippopotamus being the closest living relative.

Is a cow an ungulate?

Ungulates (pronounced /ˈʌŋɡjəleɪts/ UNG-gyə-layts) are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraffes, camels, sheep, deer, and hippopotamuses.

What is the largest ungulate?

The largest odd-toed ungulate is the white rhinoceros.

• The largest extant species is the white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum).
• The largest extant wild equids are the Grevy’s zebra (Equus grevyi), at up to 450 kg (990 lb), a shoulder height of 1.6 m (5.2 ft) and total length of 3.8 m (12 ft).

What animal is considered an ungulate?

Are there any cetaceans that are not Artiodactyla?

While cetaceans such as whales and dolphins are not normal artiodactyls, they belong to the clade; the Artiodactyla are sometimes termed the Cetartiodactyla to reflect this.

What are the physical characteristics of a cetacean?

Cetacean Characteristics. Cetaceans are mammals, which means they are endothermic (commonly called warm-blooded) and their internal body temperature is about the same as a human’s. They give birth to live young and breathe air through lungs just like we do.

How are cetaceans and even toed ungulates related?

The classification of artiodactyls was hotly debated because the ocean-dwelling cetaceans evolved from the land-dwelling even-toed ungulates. Some semiaquatic even-toed ungulates (hippopotamuses) are more closely related to the ocean-dwelling cetaceans than to the other even-toed ungulates.

How are whales and Artiodactyla related to each other?

The Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates), together with the whales, form the order Cetartiodactyla. The Artiodactyla includes omnivores (the suborder Suina) and herbivores (the suborders Tylopoda and Ruminantia and the hippopotamuses, which are related to whales).