Perissodactyls
Equidae
Tapiridae
Rhinocerotidae
</table>
The
odd-toed ungulates or
Perissodactyla are large to very large browsing and grazing
mammals with relatively simple stomachs and a large middle toe. The members of the order fall into two groups:
horses, which have only one toe and tend to be fast runners with long legs, and the suborder
Ceratomorpha, which contains two families of slower-moving, thick-set animals with several functional toes: the
tapirs and the
rhinoceroses.
The odd-toed
ungulates arose in what is now
North America in the late
Paleocene, less than 10 million years after the
dinosaurs died out. By the start of the
Eocene (55 million years ago) they had diversified and spread out to occupy several continents. The horses and tapirs both evolved in North America; the rhinoceroses appear to have developed in
Asia from tapir-like animals and then reinvaded the Americas during the middle Eocene (about 45 million years ago). There were 12 families, of which only three survive. These families were very diverse in form and size; they included the enormous
brontotheres and the bizarre chalicotheres. The largest perissodactyl, an Asian rhinoceros called
Paraceratherium, reached 12 tonnes—more than twice the weight of an
elephant!
Perissodactyls were the dominant group of large terrestrial browsers right through the
Oligocene. However, the rise of grasses in the
Miocene (about 20 million years ago) saw a major change: the
even-toed ungulates with their more complex stomachs were better able to adapt to a coarse, low-nutrition diet, and soon rose to prominence. Nevertheless, many odd-toed species survived and prospered until the late
Pleistocene (about 10,000 years ago) when they faced the pressure of human hunting and habitat change.
The three surviving families of odd-toed ungulate are classified as follows.
- ORDER PERISSODACTYLA
- Family Equidae: horses and allies, about 9 species in one genus
- Family Tapiridae: tapirs, 4 species in one genus
- Family Rhinocerotidae: rhinoceroses, 5 species in 4 genera
See also:
