The odd-toed ungulates are browsing and grazing mammals such as horses, tapirs and rhinoceroses whose hooves each feature an odd number of toes. The middle toe on each hoof is also usually larger than its neighbors. Together, odd-toed ungulates form the order Perissodactyla.
They are relatively large and, unlike the ruminant even-toed ungulates (artiodactyls), they have relatively simple stomachs. This is because they are hindgut fermenters, dige...
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The odd-toed ungulates are browsing and grazing mammals such as horses, tapirs and rhinoceroses whose hooves each feature an odd number of toes. The middle toe on each hoof is also usually larger than its neighbors. Together, odd-toed ungulates form the order Perissodactyla.
They are relatively large and, unlike the ruminant even-toed ungulates (artiodactyls), they have relatively simple stomachs. This is because they are hindgut fermenters, digesting plant cellulose in their intestines rather than in one or more stomachs.
Although no certain records are known prior to the early Eocene, the odd-toed ungulates probably arose in what is now Asia during the late Paleocene, less than 10 million years after the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. 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...
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