From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ungulates (meaning roughly "hoofed" or "hoofed animal") make up several orders of mammals, of which six survive:
- Artiodactyla: even-toed ungulates, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, antelope, and many others
- Cetacea: whales and dolphins (which evolved from hoofed land animals)
- Perissodactyla: odd-toed ungulates such as horses and rhinos
- Proboscidea: elephants
- Sirenia: dugongs and manatees
- Hyracoidea: hyraxes
Most large land mammals are ungulates.
Extinct ungulate groups include Ancylopoda, Amblypoda and Condylarths.
In addition to hooves, ungulates developed reduced canine teeth, bunodont molarss (molars with low, rounded cusps), and an astragalus (one of the ankle bones at the end of the lower leg) with a short, robust head.
Ungulates diversified rapidly in the Eocene, but are thought to date back perhaps as far as the Late Cretaceous. Most ungulates are herbivores, but a few are omnivores or predators (for example, whales).
