Even-Toed Ungulate Families (Artiodactyla)

This group gathers taxon/Mammal Families subcategory members that are themselves mammal families belonging to the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed hoofed mammals, whose weight rests evenly on the third and fourth toes of each foot. It spans Bovidae, by far the largest artiodactyl family and encompassing cattle, antelopes, goats and sheep, Cervidae, the deer family, and Camelidae, the camel and llama family, alongside more distinctive single-species or near-single-species families such as Giraffidae, the giraffe and okapi family, Hippopotamidae, the hippopotamus family, and Antilocapridae, home today to only the pronghorn, the sole survivor of a family once far more diverse across North America. Most families gathered here are ruminants, digesting tough plant matter through a multi-chambered stomach and the familiar habit of chewing the cud, though the hippopotamus family notably is not.