Form and function

General structure

Artiodactyls have larger stomachs and longer intestines than carnivorous animals because plant food is less easily digested than meat. The necessity of escaping predators and the handicap of a heavy digestive system have resulted in limb bone adaptations.

In all artiodactyls the main weight-bearing axis of the leg passes through the third and fourth toes together. This has been called paraxonic support and is contrasted with the mesaxonic limb support of the other great order of herbivorous mammals, the perissodactyls (rhinoceros, horse, tapir), in which the weight-bearing axis passes through the third or central toe alone. As artiodactyls evolved there was increasing development of the third and fourth toes and a parallel decline of the second and fifth toes flanking them. Progressive simplification of limb extremities has characterized the evolution of the artiodactyls, and even in the earliest known artiodactyls, the pollex and hallux (corresponding to the big toe and thumb of man) were already rare.

The other main morphological characteristic of artiodactyls is that the astragalus, one of the bones in the ankle, has upper and lower rounded articulations (areas of contact of bones) and no constricted neck, instead of simply one rounded articulation above a neck, as in other mammals. This character is so basic to artiodactyls that it has not developed very much within the known history of the order, having already been present in long extinct members. The artiodactyl astragalus also has an articulation on its rear surface for the calcaneum (heel bone). The three articulations are in nearly parallel planes, allowing the astragalus to rotate vertically.

Other features of the limbs, skull, and dentition distinguish artiodactyls. The ulna (posterior forearm bone) and fibula (posterior bone of the lower leg) have become reduced. The humerus, the upper bone of the foreleg, is large and has a large protrusion, the greater trochanter, to which muscles are attached. The femur, the upper bone of the hindleg, has a large greater trochanter and a second, lesser trochanter, but lacks the third trochanter characteristic of perissodactyls. There are typically 19 thoracic and lumbar (upper and lower back) vertebrae. The separate lumbar region of the spine is retained with its forwardly directed transverse processes (lateral projections on the vertebrae). There is no clavicle, or collarbone, in the shoulder girdle. The hip girdle shows fore-and-aft elongation and a well-developed ischium (upper anterior bone of the pelvis). There is never a penis bone.

The large tongue is very mobile and can be thrust forward. The brain is moderately developed, with folding of the surface of the cerebral hemispheres variably developed, often less in small artiodactyls than in large ones. The olfactory region of the brain is well developed and hearing is acute. The brains of earlier artiodactyls, such as the extinct entelodonts, were smaller than those of later forms. There are often scent glands on the head and body.

Specializations of the head

The skulls of pigs and peccaries lack a complete bony bar behind the eye (postorbital bar) as in most suiform artiodactyls and the early camels. The hippopotamuses, most camels, all ruminants, and two fossil suiform groups (entelodonts and oreodonts) have a complete postorbital bar. Any surface exposure of the periotic bone (bone around the ear) on the skull is called the mastoid, and skulls without such a surface exposure are described as being amastoid. Amastoid skulls are found in most suiform groups (including entelodonts, anthracotheres, and all living suiform groups); mastoid skulls occur in some early suiform groups, oreodonts, and all remaining artiodactyls that have lived since the end of the Eocene Epoch (about 33.9 million years ago). Hippopotamuses have many modifications for aquatic life—large lungs, eyes and nostrils on top of the head, nostrils that can be closed by muscular control, and small ears. They are able to remain submerged for at least five minutes.

Horns and antlers

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Pigs, peccaries, hippopotamuses, camels, and chevrotains have no horns or antlers. In the early Miocene, Old World ruminants related to giraffes and deer first developed such appendages. The majority of deer have antlers, defined as solid, bony, branched outgrowths of the frontal bones, present only in the males (but also in female reindeer) and shed seasonally. They are not covered by a horny sheath but, during a growth period of about four months, have a fine-haired skin or “velvet.” The antlers have two basic branches, the anterior or brow tine, and the posterior branch or beam. The brow tine is unbranched, except in Pére David’s deer, in which both it and the beam are branched, the brow tine forming the dominant part of the antler. Antlers are specialized sex characters used for fighting by males in the rutting season and to scrape or slash at trees and bushes for territorial marking.

A study of the chital deer showed that antlers increase in size up to the seventh year, remain at a constant size until the ninth year, then decline. The horn of bovids consists of a hollow, unbranched horny sheath (formed of modified skin like fingernails and toenails) that fits over a bony core; horns are often present on both sexes. If such a horn is accidentally lost it is not regenerated; this is unlike the situation in deer, in which normal shedding is followed by regrowth. In the giraffe, but not in the okapi, horn growth is mainly from the parietal bone. The pronghorn has horns in both sexes. The sheaths are shed each year after the breeding season, and new ones develop under the old ones. The sheath is two pronged, but the underlying bony core is unbranched.