Perissodactyla Sentence Examples

The Perissodactyla have been brigaded with the Artiodactyla to form the typical group of the ungulates, under the name of Diplarthra, or Ungulata Vera, and the features distinguishing the combined group from the less specialized members of the order Ungulata will be found under the heading of that order.

The following are the leading characteristics by means of which the sub-order Perissodactyla is distinguished from the Artiodactyla.

Rhinoceros Group. - The last section of the Perissodactyla is that of the Rhinocerotoidea, represented by the modern rhinoceroses and their extinct allies.

As contrasted with the Perissodactyla living, and in a great degree extinct, Artiodactyla are characterized by the following structural features.

Artiodactyla date from the Eocene period, when they appear to have been less numerous than the Perissodactyla, although at the present day they are immeasurably ahead of that group, and form indeed the dominant ungulates.

See PERISSODACTYLA.

The gall-bladder is usually present in mammals, but is wanting in the odd-toed ungulates (Perissodactyla) and Procavia (Hyrax).

Osborn, who recognises four genera, Titanotherium, Megacerops, Symborodon and Brontotherium, in the typical section of the family, considers that each of these represents a distinct line of descent from the Palaeosyops-like group. The whole assemblage forms one of the four main sections of the Perissodactyla, namely the Titanotheroidea.

Of the other suborders of ungulates, the Toxodontia and Litopterna are exclusively South American, and while the former may possibly be related to the Hyracoidea and Barypoda, the latter is perhaps more nearly akin to the Perissodactyla.

The latter is represented by the Eocene Condylarthra, which undoubtedly gave rise to the Perissodactyla and Artiodactyla, and probably to most, if not all, of the other groups.

The now waning group of Perissodactyla would appear to have originally been a northern one, as all the three existing families, rhinoceroses (Rhinocerotidae), tapirs (Tapiridae), and horses (Equidae), are well represented in the Tertiaries of both halves of the northern hemisphere.

On the other hand, in common with the rest of the Perissodactyla, they never reached Madagascar.

Species The distinctive characteristics of the family, and its position in the zoological system, are given in the articles Equidae and Perissodactyla.

From Hyracotherium, which is closely related to the Eocene representatives of the ancestral stocks of the other three branches of the Perissodactyla, the transition is easy to Phenacodus, the representative of the common ancestor of all the Ungulata.

The typical ungulates are the members of the suborders Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla, in both of which the bones of the foot articulate with each other by means of groove-and-tongue joints, whence the name of Diplarthra (equivalent to Ungulata Vera), which has been proposed for these two groups collectively, as distinct from the other representatives of the order.

The Perissodactyla may be divided into the four following sections, namely the extinct Titanotheroidea, the Hippoidea, represented by the horse tribe and their ancestors, the Tapiroidea, typified by the tapirs, and the Rhinocerotoidea, which includes the modern rhinoceroses and their forerunners.