Ungulates are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraffes, camels, sheep, deer, and hippopotamuses. Cetaceans such as whales, dolphins, and porpoises are also classified as even-toed ungulates, although they do not have hooves. Most terrestrial ungulates use the hoofed tips of their toes to support their body weight while standing or moving.
The even-toed ungulates are ungulates—hoofed animals—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. By contrast, odd-toed ungulates bear weight on an odd number of the five toes. Another difference between the two is that many other even-toed ungulates digest plant cellulose in one or more stomach chambers rather than in their intestine as the odd-toed ungulates do.
A peccary is a medium-sized, pig-like hoofed mammal of the family Tayassuidae. They are found throughout Central and South America, Trinidad in the Caribbean, and in the southwestern area of North America. They usually measure between 90 and 130 cm in length, and a full-grown adult usually weighs about 20 to 40 kg. They represent the closest relatives of the family Suidae, which contains pigs and relatives. Together Tayassuidae and Suidae are grouped in the Suina within the Artiodactyla.
Entelodontidae, the entelodonts, are an extinct family of pig-like artiodactyls which inhabited the Northern Hemisphere from the late Eocene to the Middle Miocene epochs, about 38-19 million years ago. Their large heads, low snouts, narrow gait, and proposed omnivorous diet inspires comparisons to suids and tayassuids (peccaries), and historically they have been considered closely related to these families purely on a morphological basis. However, studies which combine morphological and molecular (genetic) data on artiodactyls instead suggest that entelodonts are cetancodontamorphs, more closely related to hippos and cetaceans than to pigs or other ungulates.
The collared peccary is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed) mammal in the family Tayassuidae found in North, Central, and South America. It is the only member of the genus Dicotyles. They are commonly referred to as javelina, saíno, or báquiro, although these terms are also used to describe other species in the family. The species is also known as the musk hog. In Trinidad, it is colloquially known as quenk.
The Antilocapridae are a family of artiodactyls endemic to North America. Their closest extant relatives are the giraffids with which they comprise the superfamily Giraffoidea. Only one species, the pronghorn, is living today; all other members of the family are extinct. The living pronghorn is a small ruminant mammal resembling an antelope.
Kenyapotamus is a possible ancestor of living hippopotamuses that lived roughly 16 million to 8 million years ago during the Miocene epoch. Its name reflects that its fossils were first found in modern-day Kenya.
Suinae is a subfamily of artiodactyl mammals that includes several of the extant members of Suidae and their closest relatives – the domestic pig and related species, such as babirusas. Several extinct species within the Suidae are classified in subfamilies other than Suinae. However, the classification of the extinct members of the Suoidea – the larger group that includes the Suidae, the peccary family (Tayassuidae), and related extinct species – is controversial, and different classifications vary in the number of subfamilies within Suidae and their contents. Some classifications, such as the one proposed by paleontologist Jan van der Made in 2010, even exclude from Suinae some extant taxa of Suidae, placing these excluded taxa in other subfamilies.
The Palaeomerycidae are an extinct family of ruminants in the order Artiodactyla. Palaeomerycids lived in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia from 33 to 4.9 million years ago, existing for about 28 million years; one species was also reported from South America, but its identity as a palaeomerycid was subsequently disputed.
The Thomas Farm site is an Early Miocene, Hemingfordian assemblage of vertebrate fossils located in Gilchrist County, northern Florida.
Oriomeryx is an extinct genus of the family Moschidae, endemic to Europe from the early Miocene epoch, approximately 20 Ma. Fossils are known only from a single site in Zaragoza, Spain.
Hypertragulidae is an extinct family of artiodactyl ungulates that lived in North America, Europe, and Asia from the Eocene until the Miocene, living 46.2—13.6 million years ago, existing for about 33 million years.
Artiofabula is a clade made up of the Suina and the Cetruminantia. The clade was found in molecular phylogenetic analyses and contradicted traditional relationships based on morphological analyses.
In biostratigraphy, MN 5 is one of the MN zones used to characterize the fossil mammal faunas of the Neogene of Europe. It is preceded by MN 4 and followed by MN 6 and is part of the Orleanian age of the middle Miocene. MN 5 starts within magnetostratigraphic chron C5Cr, at 17.0 million years ago, and ends at the start of chron C5Bn.1r, at 15.0 million years ago, although some different correlations have been proposed. The reference locality used to correlate faunas with this zone is Pontlevoy-Thenay in France; other localities include La Retama in Spain, Castelnau-d'Arbieu in France, and Sandelzhausen in Germany.
Cainotheriidae is an extinct family of artiodactyls known from the Late Eocene to Middle Miocene of Europe. They are mostly found preserved in karstic deposits.
Surameryx is an extinct genus of herbivorous even-toed ungulates originally described as belonging to the extinct family Palaeomerycidae. A single species, S. acrensis, was described from the Late Miocene of the Madre de Dios Formation, South America. It was originally interpreted as one of the few northern mammals that entered South America before the Pliocene. However, both its identification as a member of the family Palaeomerycidae and claims about its Miocene age were subsequently challenged.
Microbunodon was a genus of extinct artiodactyl mammals in the family Anthracotheriidae. It lived between the upper Eocene and the lower Pliocene. Its fossil remains have been found in Europe and Asia.
Rhinoclemmys panamaensis is an extinct species of turtle belonging to the genus Rhinoclemmys of the family Geoemydidae known from the early to middle Miocene (Hemingfordian) Cucaracha Formation of the Panama Basin of central Panama.
Helohyidae were a group of artiodactyl mammals. They were most prominent in the mid-to-upper Eocene.
Sanitheriidae were extinct family of suoid artiodactyl ungulates that were once widely distributed in Africa, Europe, and South Asia, existing from the Early Miocene to the Middle Miocene. Unlike pigs and peccaries, the dentition and limb morphology suggests the sanitheres were more carnivorous and cursorial. The dentition in particular is similar to early ruminants. Only two genera are recognized Sanitherium and Diamantohyus.
