Editing Ungulate (section)

{{Short description|Group of animals that walk on the tips of their toes or hooves}}
{{For|elephants and relatives, sometimes called ungulates or subungulates|Paenungulata}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| fossil_range = {{fossilrange|Thanetian|recent|earliest=66|[[Paleocene]]–present}}
| image = Clade Ungulata Two Orders.jpg
| image_caption = Image from top to left with [[artiodactyls]] at the top and [[Perissodactyla]] at the bottom: [[giraffe]], [[plains bison]], [[dromedary]],  [[red deer]], [[wild boar]], [[orca]] ([[Cetacea]]), [[plains zebra]], [[Indian rhinoceros]], and [[Brazilian tapir]].
| taxon = Euungulata
| authority = Waddell ''et al.'', 2001<ref name="euungulata">Peter J. Waddell, Hirohisa Kishino, Rissa Ota (2001). "A Phylogenetic Foundation for Comparative Mammalian Genomics". ''Genome Informatics'' '''12''': 141–154, {{doi|10.11234/gi1990.12.141}}.</ref>
| subdivision_ranks = Orders and clades
| subdivision = * ''Clade'': [[Panperissodactyla]]
** Family: †[[Phenacodontidae]]?
** ''Clade'': †'''[[Anthracobunia]]'''
** Order: †[[Desmostylia]](?)<ref name="Cooper2014"/>
** ''Clade'': †[[Litopterna]]
** ''Clade'': †[[Notoungulata]]
** Order: [[Odd-toed ungulate|Perissodactyla]]
* ''Clade'': '''[[Artiodactyla|Panartiodactyla]]'''
** Order: †[[Arctocyonia]]?
** Order: †[[Mesonychia]]?
** Family: †[[Periptychidae]]?
** Order: [[Even-toed ungulate|Artiodactyla]]
| synonyms = * Cetungulata {{smalldiv|Irwin and Wilson, 1993<ref>Irwin, D.M. and Wilson, A.C. (1993). "Limitations of molecular methods for establishing the phylogeny of mammals, with special reference to the position of elephants". In: F.S. Szalay, M.J. Novacek, and M.C. McKenna (eds.), ''Mammal Phylogeny: Placentals''. pp. 257–267, Springer-Verlag, New York.</ref>}}
}}

'''Ungulates''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ʌ|ŋ|ɡ|j|ʊ|l|eɪ|t|s|,_|-|ɡ|j|ə|-|,_|-|l|ɪ|t|s|,_|-|l|ə|t|s}} {{respell|UNG|gyuu|layts|,_-|gyə|-,_-|lits|,_-|ləts}}) are members of the diverse [[clade]] '''Euungulata''' ("true ungulates"), which primarily consists of large mammals with [[Hoof|hooves]]. Once part of the clade "Ungulata" along with the clade [[Paenungulata]], "Ungulata" has since been determined to be a [[polyphyletic]] and thereby invalid clade based on molecular data. As a result, true ungulates had since been reclassified to the newer clade Euungulata in 2001 within the clade [[Laurasiatheria]] while [[Paenungulata]] has been reclassified to a distant clade [[Afrotheria]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gheerbrant|first1=Emmanuel|last2=Filippo|first2=Andrea|last3=Schmitt|first3=Arnaud|year=2016|title=Convergence of Afrotherian and Laurasiatherian Ungulate-Like Mammals: First Morphological Evidence from the Paleocene of Morocco|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=11|issue=7|pages=e0157556 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0157556 |pmid=27384169 |pmc=4934866 |bibcode=2016PLoSO..1157556G |doi-access=free }}</ref>  Living ungulates are divided into two orders: [[Perissodactyla]] including [[Equidae|equines]], [[rhinoceros]]es, and [[tapir]]s; and [[Artiodactyla]] including [[Bos|cattle]], [[antelope]], [[Sus (genus)|pig]]s, [[giraffe]]s, [[camel]]s, [[Ovis|sheep]], [[deer]], and [[Hippopotamidae|hippopotamus]]es, among others. [[Cetacean]]s such as [[Whale|whales]], [[Dolphin|dolphins]], and [[Porpoise|porpoises]] are also classified as artiodactyls, although they do not have hooves. Most terrestrial ungulates use the hoofed tips of their toes to support their body weight while standing or moving. Two other orders of ungulates, [[Notoungulata]] and [[Litopterna]], both native to South America, became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene, around 12,000 years ago.

The term means, roughly, "being hoofed" or "hoofed animal". As a descriptive term, "ungulate" normally excludes cetaceans as they do not possess most of the typical [[Morphology (biology)|morphological]] characteristics of other ungulates, but recent discoveries indicate that they were also descended from early [[artiodactyls]].<ref name="Genomes">{{Cite journal | title = Analyses of mitochondrial genomes strongly support a hippopotamus-whale clade | volume = 265 | issue = 1412 | year = 1998 | pages = 2251–5 | journal = [[Proceedings of the Royal Society B]] | author = Ursing, B. M. |author2=Arnason, U.  | doi = 10.1098/rspb.1998.0567 | pmid = 9881471 | pmc = 1689531}}</ref> Ungulates are typically herbivorous and many employ specialized [[Gut microbiota|gut bacteria]] to enable them to digest cellulose, though some members may deviate from this: several species of [[Suidae|pigs]] and the extinct [[entelodont]]s are omnivorous, while cetaceans and the extinct [[mesonychia]]ns are carnivorous.