DNGULATA 



955 



Order UNGULATA. 



1801. Ungulata Bechstein, Gemeinn. Naturgesch. Deutsohlauds, I, 2nd 

 ed., p. 182. 



Geographical distribution. — Essentially throughout all of the 

 larger land masses of the world, Australia excepted. 



Characters. — Terrestrial, herbivorous or omnivorous, placental 

 mammals with broad-crowned, tuberculated or ridged molars, 

 digitigrade feet, and hoofed digits. 



Bemarks. — The exact limit of the order Ungulata is still 

 a matter of controversy. The group is here considered as 

 equivalent to the Diplarihra. Thus restricted it contains two 

 main groups, the Artiodactyla, in which the main axis of the 

 foot lies between the third and fourth digits, producing the well- 

 known cloven hoof, and the Perissodactyla, in which the main 

 axis of the foot passes through the middle of the third digit. 

 All the European members of the order now existing in the 

 wild state belong to the sub-order Artiodactyla. The genus 

 Equus, representing the Perissodactyla, probably disappeared as 

 a natural member of the fauna of western Europe during paleo- 

 lithic times. The Artiodactyla are at present the most widely 

 distributed and abundantly represented of the order. About 

 eight families, eighty genera and six hundred species are. 

 currently recognized. Three families and nine genera are repre- 

 sented among the species now occurring in western Europe. 



The Ungulata of Europe are so inadequately represented in the 

 British and other Museums that it has been found impossible to 

 treat the group in the same manner as the preceding orders. No 

 general monographic study of any genus has been possible. The 

 descriptions have consequently been reduced to diagnosis, and 

 some of the recently named forms are entered at second hand. 



ARTIFICIAL KEY TO THE EUROPEAN FAMILIES OF 

 ARTIODACTYLA; 



Upper incisors present ; lower canine not incisor-like ; 



horns absent (Pigs) r . ...._. ._ Suid/r., p. 956. 



Upper incisors absent ; lower canine incisor-like ; horns 



present, at least in males. 



Horns, consisting of an outer sheath supported by a 



bony core growing from the frontal bone, present 



at all times in adult males and usually in females 



(Cattle, sheep, goats, &c.) Bovidse, p. 986. 



Horns (antlers), consisting of a solid bony outgrowth 

 from the frontal bone, periodically shed and re- 

 newed, often absent in females (Deer) Cervidse, p. 962. 



