Cetartiodactyla

Cetartiodactyls; Temporal range: late Palaeocene - Recent
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Eutheria
Superorder:	Laurasiatheria
(unranked):	Cetartiodactyla
Orders
	Order: Cetacea; Suborders: Suina; Tylopoda; Ruminantia; ; Family: Hippopotamidae;

Cetartiodactyla is the taxonomical superorder which includes whales (and dolphins) and even-toed ungulates. The name was created by merging the name for the two orders, Cetacea and Artiodactyla, into a single word.

Goat, an even-toed ungulate

Cetartiodactyla is used because it is thought that whales evolved from the artiodactyls. Because of this, their closest living land relative may be the hippopotamus.

Wikispecies has information on: Cetartiodactyla.

Cetartiodactyla Media

Entelodonts were stocky animals with a large head, and were characterized by bony bumps on the lower jaw.
Sivatherium was a relative of giraffes with deer-like forehead ossicones.
Anoplotherium was the first fossil artiodactyl genus to be named, with a history dating back to 1804. It lived in Europe as part of the endemic family Anoplotheriidae during the late Eocene-earliest Oligocene.
Richard Owen coined the term "even-toed ungulate."
Molecular and morphological studies confirmed that cetaceans are the closest living relatives of hippopotamuses.
Hippopotamuses are a geologically young group, which raises questions about their origin.
Recherches pour servir à l'histoire naturelle des mammifères (Pl. 80) (white background)
Voyage en Abyssinie Plate 2 (white background)
Cladogram of Cetacea within Artiodactyla (Camelus bactrianus)
Tragulus napu - 1818-1842 - Print - Iconographia Zoologica - Special Collections University of Amsterdam - (white background)