Artiodactyla

This page forms part of Project Species and considered an phase 1 article stub. Please consider adding knowledge to this page. See Project Species for more information.

Artiodactyla is an order of mammals that includes even-toed ungulates, which bear weight equally on two of their five toes: the third and fourth. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing posteriorly. Artiodactyla is divided into four suborders: Ruminantia, Suina, Tylopoda, and Whippomorpha.

Some representatives of the order Artiodactyla in the traditional sense, without cetaceans, which are cladistically included in this taxon.

Diet

Most artiodactyls are herbivores, meaning they eat plant-based food. They are closely tied to the resources of their environment and are dependent on feeding areas not being covered by too much snow or shriveled under a drought, and on the regulating effects of fire or other herbivores on the seasonal succession of vegetation. Various grazing species feed on grass at different heights. Browsers, those that feed on the foliage of shrubs and trees, show more extreme variation in feeding height. However, there are also omnivorous artiodactyls, such as pigs, which belong to the suborder Suina.