Curated category
Herbivorous mammals
- CattleAround 10,500 years ago, wild aurochs began their transformation into the cattle we know today. This process started in central Anatolia and the Levant near…
- SheepSheep recognize and remember the faces of fifty other sheep for over two years. That finding, reported in 2001 by Kenneth M.
- HorseThe horse, Equus ferus caballus, travels on the same bones a human would use to walk on tiptoe. It carries an average weight of 500 kg on a single toe per…
- ElephantSixty million years ago, the earliest members of Proboscidea emerged in Africa. Eritherium weighed around 10 kilograms and stood less than half a meter tall.
- African buffaloThe African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) spreads across disconnected ranges from Senegal to South Africa, yet five distinct subspecies define its existence.
- GoatArchaeological excavations at Ganj Dareh in Iran have uncovered goat remains dating back 10,000 years. These bones represent the earliest known evidence of…
- ElkBy the 17th century, Alces alces had long been extirpated from the British Isles. The meaning of the word elk to English-speakers became rather vague.
- PronghornThe pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) stands alone as the only surviving member of the family Antilocapridae. During the Pleistocene epoch, about 11 other…
- RabbitScientists moved rabbits from the order Rodentia into Lagomorpha in 1912. This change recognized that rabbits possess two extra incisors behind their front…
- GiraffeThe fossil record reveals a lineage stretching back over 20 million years. An early ancestor named Canthumeryx lived in Libya between 17 and 15 million years…
- HippopotamusFifty-five million years ago, a common ancestor split from other even-toed ungulates. This lineage eventually gave rise to both whales and hippos.