ruminantia

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. A series or section of artiodactyl ungulate mammals; the ruminants or ruminating animals, or hoofed quadrupeds that chew the cud. All are even-toed and cloven-footed, and have a complex stomach of several compartments, in the largest one of which food is received without being chewed, to be afterward regurgitated or thrown up into the mouth, there chewed at the animal's leisure, and then swallowed again. In nearly all living ruminants the stomach has four compartments, or is quadripartite: these are the rumen, paunch, or plain tripe; the reticulum, or honeycomb tripe; the omasum, psalterium, or manyplies; and the abomasum or rennet-bag, succeeding one another in the order here given. The two former belong to the cardiac division of the stomach, the two latter to the pyloric. The families of living ruminants whose stomachs are thus perfectly quadrilocular are— the Giraffidæ, or camelopards; the Saigidæ (if regarded as distinct from the Bovidæ); the Bovidæ, or cattle, including also sheep and goats and all kinds of antelopes excepting the Antilocapridæ; and the Cervidæ, or deer family. In the Camelidæ, or camels and llamas, the stomach is imperfectly four-parted. In the Tragulidæ it is tripartite, no psalterium being developed. Several extinct families are believed on other grounds (their stomachs being unknown) to have belonged to the Ruminantia. The ruminants are collectively contrasted with those ungulates which, though artiodactyl, do not ruminate, and are known as Omnivora, as the swine and hippo-potamus. The average size of ruminants among mammals is large, a sheep being one of the smaller species; they are perfectly herbivorous, and have in addition to the peculiarities of the digestive system certain characteristic dental and cranial features: thus, there are no upper incisors, except in the camel family, in any of the living ruminants, and the under incisors bite against a callous pad. At the present time these animals are found in nearly all parts of the world (not, however, in the Australian); they are comparatively poorly represented in America, and occur in the greatest numbers, both of individuals and of species, in Africa. Also called Pecora. See also cut under Tragulus.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) A division of Artiodactyla having four stomachs. This division includes the camels, deer, antelopes, goats, sheep, neat cattle, and allies.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. cattle; bison; sheep; goats; antelopes; deer; chevrotains; giraffes; camels.