\[ **BT: [[mammals#Eutherians/Placentals|eutherians/placentals]]** ] --- # Artiodactyla (Order) Analogous with the clade **Cetartiodactyla**.[^1] Artiodactyla is an order of placental mammals composed of even-toed ungulates—hooved animals which bear weight equally on two of their five toes with the other toes either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing posteriorly—as well as their descendants, the aquatic cetaceans. [^2] ## Artiodactyl classification (with suborders, infraorders, and relevant families, subfamilies, and genera) | ARTIODACTYLA Suborder | Infraorder | Family | Subfamily | Genus | | --------------------- | ---------- | -------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | | Ruminantia | Pecora | Antilocapridae | | | | | | [[#Bovidae (Family)\|Bovidae]] | [[#Caprinae (Subfamily)\|Caprinae]] | *[[#Capra (Genus) — Goats\|Capra]]* | | | | | | *[[#Ovis (Genus) — Sheep\|Ovis]]* | | | | [[#Cervidae (Family)\|Cervidae]] | [[#Cervinae (Subfamily)\|Cervinae]] | Cervus | | | | | | *[[#Rusa (Genus)\|Rusa]]* | [^3] ## Ruminantia (Order) ### Bovidae (Family) #### Caprinae (Subfamily) ##### *Capra* (Genus) — Goats [[Anatomically, the reproductive organs of male goats, sheep, and timor deer, are all roughly the same.]][^4] ##### *Ovis* (Genus) — Sheep [[Anatomically, the reproductive organs of male goats, sheep, and timor deer, are all roughly the same.]][^4] ###### sheep pheromones/signature mixes [[A mother sheep uses signature mixes (individual odours) to distinguish her lamb from others.]][^5] ###### sheep in folklore [[According to Sima Qian, spirts of the earth are entombed sheep.]][^6] ### Cervidae (Family) - see also: [[horns and antlers]] #### Cervinae (Subfamily) ##### *Rusa* (Genus) ###### *Cervus timorensis* (Timor deer) Also known as **Rusa deer**.[^7] [[Anatomically, the reproductive organs of male goats, sheep, and timor deer, are all roughly the same.]][^4] ## endnotes [^1]: ‘Artiodactyl’, Wikipedia, last edited 31 December 2025, 05:34 (UTC), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artiodactyl. [^2]: ‘List of artiodactyls’, Wikipedia, last edited 6 January 2026, 01:50 (UTC), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artiodactyls. [^3]: ‘List of artiodactyls’, Wikipedia, last edited 6 January 2026, 01:50 (UTC). [^4]: Marlene Mesang-Nalley et al., ‘[[Mesang-Nalley et al., ‘Anatomy and Morphometry of Timor Deer (Cervus Timorensis) Stags Reproductive Organs’, 2008|Anatomy and Morphometry of Timor Deer (Cervus Timorensis) Stags Reproductive Organs]]’, *Competition for Resources in a Changing World: New Drive for Rural Development*, paper presented at Tropentag (Hohenheim), 7–9 October 2008, abstract. [^5]: Tristram D. Wyatt, ‘[[Wyatt, ‘Pheromones’, 2017|Pheromones]]’, *Current Biology*, vol. 27, no. 15 (2017), R740. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.039](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.039). [^6]: Sima Qian, *[[Sima Qian, Selections from the Records of the Historian, trans. Yang and Yang, 1979|Selections from Records of the Historian]]*, trans. Hsien-yi Yang and Gladys Yang (Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1979), p. 5. [^7]: Centre for Invasive Species, ‘Identifying Timor or Rusa Deer (*Cervus timorensis*)’, pestSMART, accessed 30 August 2025, https://pestsmart.org.au/toolkit-resource/identifying-timor-or-rusa-deer-cervus-timorensis/.