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Even-Toed Ungulate

Artiodactyla (order), “Even-Toed Ungulates”, “Artiodactyls”, “Artiodactylla”, “Even-Toed”

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The even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla , from Ancient Greek ἄρτιος, ártios 'even', and δάκτυλος, dáktylos 'finger, toe') are ungulates—hoofed animals—which bear weight equally on two (an even number) of their five toes: the third and fourth. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing posteriorly. By contrast, odd-toed ungulates bear weight on an odd number of the five toes. Another difference between the two is that even-toed ungulates digest plant cellulose in one or more stomach chambers rather than in their intestine as the odd-toed ungulates do. The aquatic cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) evolved from even-toed ungulates, so modern taxonomic classification combines the two under the name Cetartiodactyla . The roughly 270 land-based even-toed…