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Ruminantia

(Suborder)

Overview

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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.

Not all ruminants belong to the Ruminantia.2] Camels and llamas are among the exceptions, a suborder known as Tylopoda.[2] 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.

Evolution

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The Tragulidae are the basal family in the Ruminantia.[3]

The ancestral Ruminantia karyotype is 2n?=?48 similar to that of cetartiodactyls.[3]

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  • Family Tragulidae: chevrotains, 6 living species in 4 genera
  • Family ?Archaeomerycidae
  • Family ?Lophiomerycidae
  • Infraorder Pecora
    • Family Cervidae: deer and moose, 49 living species in 16 genera
    • Family ?Gelocidae
    • Family ?Palaeomerycidae
    • Family ?Hoplitomerycidae
    • Family ?Climacoceratidae
    • Family Giraffidae: giraffe and okapi, 2 living species in 2 genera
    • Family Antilocapridae: pronghorn, one living species in one genus
    • Family ?Leptomerycidae[1]
    • Family Moschidae: musk deer, 4 living species in one genus
    • Family Bovidae: cattle, goats, sheep, and antelope, 135 living species in 48 genera

    • Evolution

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    The Tragulidae are the basal family in the Ruminantia.[3]

    The ancestral Ruminantia karyotype is 2n?=?48 similar to that of cetartiodactyls.[3]

    References

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    1. ^ a b c . PMC 2740860. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2740860. 
    2. ^ a b Whistler, D. P. and S. D. Webb. 2005. New goatlike camelid from the late Pliocene of Tecopa Lake Basin, California. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Contributions in Science 503:1-40.
    3. ^ a b Kulemzina AI, Yang F, Trifonov VA, Ryder OA, Ferguson-Smith MA, Graphodatsky AS (2011) Chromosome painting in Tragulidae facilitates the reconstruction of Ruminantia ancestral karyotype. Chromosome Res.

    Photos

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    Taxonomy

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    The Suborder Ruminantia is a member of the Order Artiodactyla. Here is the complete "parentage" of Ruminantia:

    The Suborder Ruminantia is further organized into finer groupings including:

    Families

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    Amphimerycidae

    [more]

    Antilocapridae

    Antilocapridae is a family of artiodactyls endemic to North America. Their closest extant relatives are the giraffids. Only one species, the pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), is living today; all other members of the family are extinct. The living pronghorn is a small ruminant mammal resembling an antelope. It bears small, forked horns. [more]

    Bachitheriidae

    [more]

    Bovidae

    [more]

    Cervidae

    Deer (singular and plural) are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer (caribou), fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species (except the Chinese water deer) and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year. In this they differ from permanently horned animals such as antelope; these are in the same order as deer and may bear a superficial resemblance. The musk deer of Asia and water chevrotain (or mouse deer) of tropical African and Asian forests are not usually regarded as true deer and form their own families, Moschidae and Tragulidae, respectively. [more]

    Climacoceratidae

    [more]

    Gelocidae

    [more]

    Giraffidae

    The giraffids are ruminant artiodactyl mammals that share a common ancestor with deer and bovids. The biological family Giraffidae, once a diverse group spread throughout Eurasia and Africa, contains only two living members, the giraffe and the okapi. Both are confined to sub-saharan Africa: the giraffe to the open savannas, and the okapi to the dense rainforest of the Congo. The two species look very different on first sight, but share a number of common features, including a long, dark-colored tongue, lobed canine teeth, and horns covered in skin, called "ossicones". [more]

    Hoplitomerycidae

    [more]

    Hypertragulidae

    Hypertragulidae is an extinct family of even-toed ungulates (order Artiodactyla), endemic to North America, Europe, and Asia during the Eocene through Miocene, living 46.2?13.6 Ma, existing for approximately 32.6 million years. [more]

    Leptomerycidae

    [more]

    Lophiomerycidae

    [more]

    Moschidae

    Musk deer are artiodactyls of the genus Moschus, the only genus of family Moschidae. They are more primitive than the cervids, or true deer, in not having antlers or facial glands, in having only a single pair of teats, and in possessing a gall bladder, a caudal gland, a pair of tusk-like teeth and?of particular economic importance to humans?a musk gland. Moschids live mainly in forested and alpine scrub habitats in the mountains of southern Asia, notably Himalayas. Moschids are entirely Asian in their present distribution, being extinct in Europe where the earliest musk deer are known from Oligocene deposits. [more]

    Palaeomerycidae

    [more]

    Tragulidae

    Chevrotains, also known as mouse deer, are small ungulates that make up the family Tragulidae, the only members of the infraorder Tragulina. There are 10 living (extant) species in three genera, but there are also several species only known from fossils. The extant species are found in forests in South and Southeast Asia, with a single species in the rainforests of Central and West Africa. They are solitary or live in pairs, and feed almost exclusively on plant material. Depending on exact species, the Asian species weigh between 0.7 and 8.0 kilograms (1.5 and 18 lb), and the smallest species are also the smallest ungulates in the world. The African chevrotain is considerably larger at 7?16 kilograms (15?35 lb). [more]

    At least 21 species and subspecies belong to the Family Tragulidae.

    More info about the Family Tragulidae may be found here.

    References

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    1. ^ a b c . PMC 2740860. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2740860. 
    2. ^ a b Whistler, D. P. and S. D. Webb. 2005. New goatlike camelid from the late Pliocene of Tecopa Lake Basin, C alifornia. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Contributions in Science 503:1-40.
    3. ^ a b Kulemzina AI, Yang F, Trifonov VA, Ryder OA, Ferguson-Smith MA, Graphodatsky AS (2011) Chromosome painting in Tragulidae facilitates the reconstruction of Ruminantia ancestral karyotype. Chromosome Res.

    Sources

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    Last Revised: February 24, 2012
    2012/02/24 01:16:29