China hardiness map, giving some indication of the ecological zone diversity of modern China. Over the past, global climatic change has wrought many changes over the centuries and millennia.
This is a list of Chinese terrestrial ungulates, including both extinct and extant types.
Ungulates are mammals which are endothermicamniote animals distinguished from reptiles and birds by the possession of hair,[lower-alpha 1] three middle ear bones, mammary glands, and a neocortex (a region of the brain). The mammalian brain regulates body temperature and the circulatory system, including the four-chambered heart. The mammals include the largest animals on the planet, the rorquals and some other whales, as well as some of the most intelligent, such as elephants, some primates and some cetaceans. The basic body type is a four-legged land-borne animal, but some mammals are adapted for life at sea, in the air, in the trees, or on two legs. The largest group of mammals, the placentals, have a placenta which feeds the offspring during pregnancy.
China for the purposes of this list article refers to a collection of geographic and ecological areas, now primarily politically identified with a modern nation state. Written records of the history of China can be found from as early as 1200 BC under the Shang dynasty (c. 1700–1046 BC). Ancient historical texts such as the Records of the Grand Historian (c. 100 BC) and the Bamboo Annals describe a Xia dynasty (c. 2100–1700 BC). The Yellow River is said to be the cradle of Chinese civilization, although cultures originated at various regional centers along both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valleys millennia ago in the Neolithic era.
According to the science of biological taxonomy, ungulates divide into different taxonomic or cladistic sub-categories. The 2 relevant to this list article are odd- and even-toed ungulates. Non-terrestrial species may be considered elsewhere. This list includes both domesticated species and the wildlife of China.
Human uses in China for the terrestrial ungulates include food from flesh or milk, fuel from dung, cloth and leather from hair (or, wool) and hide, religious expression, draft animals for carriage, battle technology, subjects of plastic, graphic, written, and spoken art.
Bovids include antelopes, goat-antelopes (which include sheep, goats and others), and cattle. In China, this has included antelopes, gazelles, and other; cattle; goats; and, sheep:
Camel and rider, Tang dynasty. Historically camels were often associated with bringing exotic persons and goods into China.
Camels are a type of even-toed ungulate of the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on their back. The two surviving species of camel are the dromedary, one-humped camel (C. dromedarius) of Middle East and Horn of Africa; and the bactrian, or two-humped camel (C. bactrianus) of Central Asia. Both have been domesticated, and have provided camel milk, meat, camel hair for textiles, and have served as riding mounts and carriage animals, in war and in peace.
Bactrian camel, 2-humped camel native to Central Asia, historically an exotic species for most of China
Deer types
Deer (Cervidae and related, true deer and musk deer) were historically important in China; they include:
Musk deer are in the genus Moschus the only extant genus of the familyMoschidae, represented by seven extant species, most or all with ranges in or including China. They lack antlers and facial glands, and possess only a single pair of teats, a gall bladder, a caudal gland, a pair of tusk-like teeth and—of particular economic importance to humans—a musk gland. To obtain their musk, the deer is killed and its musk gland removed and dried. The reddish-brown paste turns into a black granular material, which is used in alcohol solution. One kilogram (2.2lb) of musk grains requires 30 - 50 deer, which together with their high demand for perfumes and medicines makes musk tinctures highly expensive. Notable species of musk deer, in modern China are:
Alpine musk deer (Moschus chrysogaster), occurs in the highlands of central China, south and west to the Himalayas
An odd-toed ungulate is a mammal with hooves that feature an odd number of toes on the rear feet. Odd-toed ungulates compose the orderPerissodactyla (Greek: περισσός, perissós, "uneven", and δάκτυλος, dáktylos, "finger/toe"). The middle toe on each hind hoof is usually larger than its neighbours. Odd-toed ungulates are relatively large grazers and, unlike the ruminanteven-toed ungulates (artiodactyls), they have relatively simple stomachs because they are hindgut fermenters, digesting plant cellulose in their intestines rather than in one or more stomach chambers. Odd-toed ungulates include the horse, tapirs, and rhinoceroses. Both horses and other equids and also rhinoceroses are well known as having a major presence in China. Although there is a Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus), also called the Asian tapir, its present range is far south of China.
Equidae/horses
Image of donkey, Qingdao, China, 1912, illustrating the use of an equid in providing power to a milling process
Horses have long been a part of Chinese culture. In ancient times, there is evidence that they were uses as a food source. As domestication lead to breeding larger specimens, horses were used for drawing chariots, wagons, and later as mounts. Equids were used for both war and peace. Horses were a prestige species, and acquiring choice varieties was a major preoccupation of many Chinese dynasties.
Domestic horse (Equus ferus caballus), a species which has historically formed a major part of Chinese culture
Kiang (Equus kiang), also known as Tibetan wild ass, large wild ass native to the Tibetan Plateau
Onager (Equus hemionus), also known as Asiatic wild ass, includes subspecies:
Rhinoceroses are large, and have horns located in the center front of their heads. Rhinoceros horns are ground and used medicinally and in Chinese history the Chu warriors were known for using rhinoceros hide armor. The horns are made of keratin, of the protein type that makes up hair and fingernails. The Elasmotherium is an extinct species, although overlapping populations with humans, in prehistory. Three species are recognised. The best known, E. sibiricum was the size of a woolly mammoth and is thought to have had a large, thick horn on its forehead; which was used for defense, attracting mates, driving away competitors, sweeping snow from the grass in winter, and digging for water, and for extracting plant roots from their growth medium. Like all rhinoceroses, elasmotheres were herbivorous. Unlike any others, its high-crowned molars were ever-growing. Its legs were longer than those of other rhinos and were adapted for galloping, giving it a horse-like gait. 3 species of currently extant rhinoceros have been attested to have historically existed in China:
Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), named after its single horn, the largest of Asian rhinoceroses
Vietnamese Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus), also known as Vietnamese Sunda rhinoceros, lesser one-horned rhinoceros, and Vietnamese rhinoceros
Perissodactyla is an order of ungulates. The order includes about 17 living species divided into three families: Equidae, Rhinocerotidae (rhinoceroses), and Tapiridae (tapirs). They typically have reduced the weight-bearing toes to three or one of the five original toes, though tapirs retain four toes on their front feet. The nonweight-bearing toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or positioned posteriorly. By contrast, artiodactyls bear most of their weight equally on four or two of the five toes: their third and fourth toes. Another difference between the two is that odd-toed ungulates digest plant cellulose in their intestines, rather than in one or more stomach chambers as even-toed ungulates, with the exception of Suina, do.
Ungulates are members of the diverse clade Euungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. Once part of the clade "Ungulata" along with the clade Paenungulata, "Ungulata" has since been determined to be a polyphyletic and thereby invalid clade based on molecular data. As a result, true ungulates had since been reclassified to the newer clade Euungulata in 2001 within the clade Laurasiatheria while Paenungulata has been reclassified to a distant clade Afrotheria. Living ungulates are divided into two orders: Perissodactyla including equines, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and Artiodactyla including cattle, antelope, pigs, giraffes, camels, sheep, deer, and hippopotamuses, among others. Cetaceans such as whales, dolphins, and porpoises are also classified as artiodactyls, 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. Two other orders of ungulates, Notoungulata and Litopterna, both native to South America, became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene, around 12,000 years ago.
Artiodactyls are mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla. Typically, they are ungulates which bear weight equally on two of their five toes: the third and fourth, often in the form of a hoof. 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 even-toed ungulates digest plant cellulose in one or more stomach chambers rather than in their intestine as the odd-toed ungulates do. The advent of molecular biology, along with new fossil discoveries, found that cetaceans fall within this taxonomic branch, being most closely related to hippopotamuses. Some modern taxonomists thus apply the name Cetartiodactyla to this group, while others opt to include cetaceans within the existing name of Artiodactyla. Some researchers use "even-toed ungulates" to exclude cetaceans and only include terrestrial artiodactyls, making the term paraphyletic in nature.
Musk deer can refer to any one, or all seven, of the species that make up Moschus, the only extant genus of the family Moschidae. Despite being commonly called deer, they are not true deer belonging to the family Cervidae, but rather their family is closely related to Bovidae, the group that contains antelopes, bovines, sheep, and goats. The musk deer family differs from cervids, or true deer, by lacking antlers and preorbital glands also, possessing only a single pair of teats, a gallbladder, a caudal gland, a pair of canine tusks and—of particular economic importance to humans—a musk gland.
Muntjacs, also known as the barking deer or rib-faced deer, are small deer of the genus Muntiacus native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. Muntjacs are thought to have begun appearing 15–35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene deposits in France, Germany and Poland. Most are listed as least-concern species or Data Deficient by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), although others such as the black muntjac, Bornean yellow muntjac, and giant muntjac are vulnerable, near threatened, and Critically Endangered, respectively.
The southern red muntjac is a deer species native to Southeast Asia. It was formerly known as the Indian muntjac or the common muntjac before the species was taxonomically revised to represent only populations of Sunda and perhaps Malaysia. The other populations being attributed to this species are now attributed to Muntiacus vaginalis. Muntjacs are also referred to as barking deer. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.
Reeves's muntjac, also known as the Chinese muntjac, is a muntjac species found widely in southeastern China and Taiwan. It has also been introduced in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Japan. It takes its name from John Reeves, a naturalist employed by the British East India Company in the 19th century.
A cloven hoof, cleft hoof, divided hoof, or split hoof is a hoof split into two toes. Members of the mammalian order Artiodactyla that possess this type of hoof include cattle, deer, pigs, antelopes, gazelles, goats, and sheep.
The Cervinae or the Old World deer, are a subfamily of deer. Alternatively, they are known as the plesiometacarpal deer, due to their ankle structure being different from the telemetacarpal deer of the Capreolinae.
Endangered mammals of India are the mammal species in India that are listed as threatened in the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Animals
Sarcocystis is a genus of parasitic Apicomplexan alveolates. Species in this genus infect reptiles, birds and mammals. The name is derived from Greek: sarkos = flesh and kystis = bladder.
The Mammalia in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae forms one of six classes of animals in Carl Linnaeus's tenth reformed edition written in Latin. The following explanations are based on William Turton's translations who rearranged and corrected earlier editions published by Johann Friedrich Gmelin, Johan Christian Fabricius and Carl Ludwig Willdenow:
Animals that suckle their young by means of lactiferous teats. In external and internal structure they resemble man: most of them are quadrupeds; and with man, their natural enemy, inhabit the surface of the Earth. The largest, though fewest in number, inhabit the ocean.
The preorbital gland is a paired exocrine gland found in many species of artiodactyls, which is homologous to the lacrimal gland found in humans. These glands are trenchlike slits of dark blue to black, nearly bare skin extending from the medial canthus of each eye. They are lined by a combination of sebaceous and sudoriferous glands, and they produce secretions which contain pheromones and other semiochemical compounds. Ungulates frequently deposit these secretions on twigs and grass as a means of communication with other animals.
Bovidae in Chinese mythology include various myths and legends about a group of biologically distinct animals which form important motifs within Chinese mythology. There are many myths about the animals modernly classified as Bovidae, referring to oxen, sheep, goats, and mythological types such as "unicorns". Chinese mythology refers to those myths found in the historical geographic area of China, a geographic area which has evolved or changed somewhat through history. Thus this includes myths in Chinese and other languages, as transmitted by Han Chinese as well as other ethnic groups. There are various motifs of animals of the Bovidae biological family in Chinese mythology. These have often served as allusions in poetry and other literature. Some species are also used in the traditional Chinese calendar and time-keeping system.
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