Order Artiodactyla

The order Artiodactyla includes antelopes, deer, musk deer, peccaries, pronghorns, and sheep. This order has no morphological characteristic that could be used as a diagnostic. Four suborders are recognized: Cetancodonta (hippopotamus, whales, and dolphins), which are stout; naked-skinned; aquatic or semiaquatic. The other three suborders have hooves and horns or antlers in common; frontal limbs have two or four digits and hooves; when they have four digits, two are small and they do not touch the ground; the other two main digits almost equal in size but not symmetrical in shape (symmetrical axis between the third and fourth digits); femur without the third trochanter; no alisphenoid canal. These are Ruminantiamorpha (pronghorns, antelopes, sheep, deer, and musk deer), Suina (pigs and peccaries), and Tylopoda (camels). Distribution is nearly cosmopolitan. One suborder, Ruminantia, and four families occur in North America: Antilocapridae, Bovidae, Cervidae, and Tayassuidae.