Hoofed Mammals

A hundred million years ago, plant eating mammals realized they
were being chased and they understood that they could only run to escape predators. The hooves form because the mammal doesn’t use its toes, and so the toes wear out and turn into hooves. All animals with hooves run with the tip of their hooves. That’s why whenever you see a horse run; none of the hooves are flat on the ground. Now there are two hundred ten species of hoofed mammals. All these species are divided into three groups. The first part is the elephants, aardvark, the hyraxes, and manatees, and dugongs. The second group is the perissodactyls which includes tapirs, rhinos, and horses and their cousins. And the last part is the artiodactyl which includes pigs, hippos, camels, deer cattle, sheep, goats, antelope, and giraffes.
Did you know reindeers have four toes, which can spread to provide support on snow. Like horses zebras run on the toe in the center because the other toes are only stumps of bone. Camels do not walk with their hoofs, they walk with their footpads. White rhinos have three toes on their feet, the first and fifth are gone.


Animal Inc.