Ruminantia
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Tragulidae |
The biological suborder Ruminantia includes many of the well-known large grazing or browsing mammals: among them cattle, goats, sheep, deer, and antelope. All members of the Ruminantia are ruminants: they digest food in two steps, chewing and swallowing in the normal way to begin with, and then regurgitating the semi-digested cud to re-chew it and thus extract the maximum possible food value.
Note that not all ruminants belong to the Ruminantia. Camels and llamas are among the exceptions. Also, there are a number of other large grazing mammals that, while not strictly ruminants, have similar adaptations for surviving on large quantities of low-grade food. Kangaroos and horses are examples.
- ORDER ARTIODACTYLA
- Suborder Suina: pigs, hippos and peccaries
- Suborder Tylopoda: camels and llamas
- Suborder Ruminantia
- Family †Amphimerycidae
- Infraorder Tragulina (paraphyletic)
- Family †Prodremotheriidae
- Family †Hypertragulidae
- Family †Praetragulidae
- Family Tragulidae: chevrotains
- Family †Leptomerycidae
- Family †Archaeomerycidae
- Family †Lophiomerycidae
- Infraorder Pecora
