Bovid

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Bovid

A bovid is any of almost 140 species of cloven-hoofed mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s belonging to the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
Bovidae. The family is widespread, being native to all continents except South America

South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
, Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
and Antarctica

Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
, and diverse: members include domestic cattle

Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
, bison

Bison

Bison is a taxonomic group containing six species of large even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Only two of these species still exist: the American bison and the European bison, or wisent , each with two subspecies....
, water buffalo

Water Buffalo

The Water Buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo is a large bovine animal, frequently used as livestock in Asia, and also widely in South America, southern Europe, north Africa and elsewhere....
, antelope

Antelope

Antelope are ruminant hoofed mammals of the family Bovidae in the order of even-toed ungulates. These animals are spread relatively evenly throughout the various subfamily of Bovidae and many are more closely related to cows or goats than to each other....
s, gazelle

GAZelle

A GAZelle is a series of mid-sized trucks, vans and buses made by Russian car manufacturer GAZ. GAZelles are similar to the later launched GAZ Sobol and GAZ Valdai line of vans and light trucks....
s, sheep

Sheep

#REDIRECT Domestic sheep...
, goat

Goat

The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep: both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae....
s and the muskox.

largest bovid, the Gaur

Gaur

The gaur is a large, dark-coated bovine animal of South Asia and Southeast Asia. The biggest populations are found today in India. The gaur is the largest species of wild cattle, bigger than the African Buffalo, Wild Asian Water Buffalo and bison....
, weighs well over a ton and stand 2.2 metres high at the shoulder; the smallest, the Royal Antelope

Royal Antelope

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Encyclopedia

A bovid is any of almost 140 species of cloven-hoofed mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s belonging to the family

Family (biology)

South America

Australia

Antarctica

Cattle

Bison

Water Buffalo

Antelope

GAZelle

Sheep

#REDIRECT Domestic sheep...
, goat

Goat

Characteristics

The largest bovid, the Gaur

Gaur

Royal Antelope

The Royal Antelope is a West African antelope, only 25–30 cm tall and weighing only 3.2–3.6 kg ? it is the smallest of all antelopes....
, weighs about 3 kg and stands no taller than a large domestic cat. Some are thick-set and muscular, others lightly built with small frames and long legs. Many species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
congregate into large groups with complex social structures, but others are mostly solitary. Within their extensive range, they occupy a wide variety of habitat types, from desert

Désert

?D?sert? is ?milie Simon's debut single, released in October 2002. The song was a huge success both critically and commercially in her homeland....
to tundra

Tundra

In physical geography, tundra is an biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes from Kildin Sami tund?r, which means "uplands, treeless mountain tract." There are two types of tundra: Arctic tundra and alpine tundra....
and from thick tropical forest to high mountains.

Most members of the family are herbivorous, except most duikers, which are omnivorous. Like other ruminant

Ruminant

Physiologically, a ruminant is a mammal of the order Artiodactyla that digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the animal's first stomach, known as the rumen, then regurgitating the semi-digested mass, now known as cud, and chewing it again....
s, bovids have a four-chambered stomach which allows them to digest plant material such as grass

Grass

Grass is the common word that generally describes monocotyledonous green plants. The family Poaceae are the "true grasses" and include most plants grown as grains, for pasture, and for lawns ....
that cannot be used by many other animals. Such plant material includes much cellulose

Cellulose

File:Cellulose Sessel.svgCellulose is an organic compound with the chemical formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand ? linked D-glucose units....
, and no higher animal can digest this directly. However, ruminants (and some others like kangaroo

Kangaroo

A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the Red Kangaroo, the Antilopine Kangaroo, and the Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo of the Macropus genus....
s, horse

Horse

The horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolution of the horse over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, odd-toed ungulate animal of today....
s, rabbit

Rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. There are seven different genus in the family taxonomy as rabbits, including the European rabbit , Cottontail rabbit , and the Amami rabbit ....
s and termite

Termite

The termites are a group of social insects usually classified at the Taxonomy of Order Isoptera . As truly social animals, they are termed eusocial along with the ants and some bees and wasps which are all placed in the separate Order Hymenoptera....
s) are able to use micro-organisms living in their gut to break down cellulose by fermentation

Fermentation

Fermentation may refer to:* Fermentation , the process of energy production in a cell under anaerobic conditions * Ethanol fermentation, a form of anaerobic respiration used primarily by yeasts when oxygen is not present in sufficient quantity for normal cellular respiration...
.

Because of the size and weight of their complex digestive systems, many bovids have a solid, stocky build – the more gracile species tend to have more selective diets, and be browsers rather than grazers. Their upper canine teeth

Canine tooth

In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dogteeth, fangs, or eye teeth, are relatively long, pointed tooth....
and incisor

Incisor

Incisors are the first kind of tooth in heterodont mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and mandible below....
s are missing, and are replaced with a hard, horny pad, that the lower teeth grind against to cut grass or other foliage. The canines are either missing or modified to act as extra incisors. The cheek

Cheek

Cheeks constitute the area of the face below the eyes and between the nose and the left or right ear.It is fleshy in humans and other mammals, the skin being suspended by the chin and the jaws, and forming the lateral wall of the human mouth, visibly touching the cheekbone below the eye....
teeth are low-crowned and selenodont

Molar (tooth)

Molars are the rearmost and most complicated kind of tooth in most mammals. In many mammals they grind food; hence the Latin name mola, "millstone"....
, and are separated from the forward teeth by a wide gap, or diastema

Diastema (dentistry)

Diastema is a gap or space between two teeth. The term is most commonly applied to be an open space between the upper incisors . It happens when there is an unequal relationship between the size of the teeth and the jaw....
. The dental formula

Dentition

Dentition is the tooth development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth.All mammals except the monotremes, the xenarthrans, the pangolins, and the cetaceans have up to four distinct types of teeth, with a maximum number for each....
for bovids is similar to that of other ruminants:

All bovids have four toe

Toe

Toes are the Digit s of the foot of an animal. Many animal species such as cats walk on their toes, and are described as being digitigrade....
s on each foot – they walk on the central two (the hooves

Hoof

File:Horse rear hooves.jpgA hoof is the tip of a toe of an ungulate mammal, strengthened by a thick horny covering. The hoof consists of a hard or rubbery sole, and a hard wall formed by a thick Nail rolled around the tip of the toe....
), while the outer two (the dew-claws) rarely touch the ground. All males and many females have horns (except in some domesticated breeds); the size and shape varies greatly but the basic structure is always a single bony protrusion without branches and covered in a permanent sheath of keratin

Keratin

Keratins are a family of fibrous protein; tough and insoluble, they form the hard but mineral structures found in reptiles, birds, amphibians and mammals....
.

Evolution

The bovid family is known through fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
s from the early Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a Geologic time scale of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are uncertain....
, around 20 million years ago. The earliest bovids, such as Eotragus
Eotragus

Eotragus is an early bovid from Europe, Africa, and Asia during the Miocene some 20-18 million years ago. It is related to the modern Nilgai and Four-horned Antelope....
, were small animals, somewhat similar to modern gazelle

GAZelle

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is an area covered in trees, usually at low density, forming an open habitat, allowing sunlight to penetrate between the trees, and limiting shade....
environments. The number of bovid species greatly expanded by the late Miocene, when many adapted to more open, grassland, habitat.

The largest number of modern bovids is found in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, while substantial but less diverse populations are in Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
and North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
. It is thought that many bovid species that evolved in Asia could not survive predation by humans arriving from Africa in the late Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 1.8 million to 10,000 years Before Present covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
. By contrast, African species had many thousands or a few million years to adapt to the gradual development of human hunting skills. Yet many of the commonly domesticated bovid species (goats, sheep

Sheep

#REDIRECT Domestic sheep...
, water buffalo and yak

Yak

The yak is a long-haired bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia....
) originated in Asia. This may be because Asian bovids had less fear of humans and were more docile.

The small number of modern American bovids are relatively recent arrivals over the Bering Land Bridge

Bering land bridge

The Bering land bridge was a land bridge roughly 1,000 miles north to south at its greatest extent, which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia at various times during the Pleistocene ice ages....
, but they long predate human arrival.

Classification

ORDER ARTIODACTYLA: even-toed ungulates

Suborder Suina
Suina

The suborder Suina contains perhaps the earliest and most archaic Artiodactyla....
: pigs and allies
Suborder Tylopoda
Tylopoda

Tylopoda is a suborder of the mammalian order Artiodactyla, containing the camel family. In the past, this group was much more diverse, containing the families Xiphodontidae, Oromerycidae, Protoceratidae, Cainotheriidae, and the two families of oreodonts, Agriochoeridae and Merycoidodontidae....
: camels and llamas
Suborder Ruminantia
Ruminantia

The biological suborder Ruminantia includes many of the well-known large grazing or browsing mammals: among them cattle, capra s, sheep, deer, and antelope....
: ruminants

Infraorder Tragulina

Family Tragulidae: chevrotains, 9 species in 3 genera

Infraorder Pecora
Pecora

The Pecora is a group of hoofed mammals that comprises most of the ruminants, including cattle, sheep, goats, antelopes,deer, giraffes, and pronghorn....

Family Moschidae: musk deer, 4 species in one genus
Family Antilocapridae: pronghorns, one species in one genus
Family Giraffidae
Giraffidae

The giraffids are ruminant artiodactyl mammals that share a common ancestor with deer and bovids. The biological family Giraffidae, once a diverse group spread throughout Eurasia and Africa, contains only two living members, the giraffe and the okapi....
: giraffes and okapi, 2 species in 2 genera
Family Cervidae: deer, 43 species in 16 genera
Family Bovidae

Subfamily Bovinae
Bovinae

The biological subfamily bovinae includes a diverse group of 10 genera of medium to large sized ungulates, including domestic cattle, the bison, the Bubalus, the yak, and the four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes....
: cattle and spiral-horned antelopes, 27 species in 10 genera
Subfamily Cephalophinae: duikers, 19 species in 2 genera
Subfamily Hippotraginae: grazing antelopes, 7 species in 3 genera
Subfamily Antilopinae
Antilopinae

Antilopinae is a subfamily of Bovidae. The gazelles, blackbucks, springboks, gerenuks, dibatags and Central Asian gazelles are often referred to as "True Antelopes" and are usually the sole representatives of the Antilopinae....
: gazelles, dwarf antelopes and the saiga, 34 species in 13 genera
Subfamily Caprinae: goat-antelopes: sheep, goats, muskox, takin etc, 33 species in 10 genera
Subfamily Reduncinae
Reduncinae

The subfamily Reduncinae is composed 8 species of antelope all of which dwell in marshes, floodplains or other well-watered areas, including the waterbucks and reedbucks....
: reedbucks, lechwe, 9 species in 2 genera
Subfamily Aepycerotinae
Impala

An impala is a medium-sized African antelope. The name impala comes from the Zulu language. They are found in savannas and thick bushveld in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, northern Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, southern Angola, northeastern South Africa and Uganda....
: impala, 1 species in 1 genus
Subfamily Peleinae
Grey Rhebok

The Grey Rhebok or Grey Rhebuck is a species of antelope endemic to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland.They prefer grassy, montane habitat, and carry a woolly grey coat to insulate them from the cold of their habitat....
: rhebok, 1 species in 1 genus
Subfamily Alcelaphinae
Alcelaphinae

The subfamily Alcelaphinae contains Wildebeest, Hartebeest, Bonteboks and several similar species. All in all it contains 10 species in 4 genera, although Beatragus is sometimes considered a subgenus of Damaliscus, and Sigmoceros for the Lichtenstein's Hartebeest.....
: wildebeest
Wildebeest

The wildebeest , also called the gnu , is an antelope of the genus Connochaetes. It is a hooved mammal.Connochaetes includes two species, both native to Africa: the Black Wildebeest, or white-tailed gnu , and the Blue Wildebeest, or brindled gnu ....
, topi/tsessebe, 10 species in 4 genera
Subfamily Pantholopinae: Chiru