When it comes to the two creatures of cattle and sheep, many people will think that they are two kinds of creatures that cannot be hit by eight rods. After all, the two really have nothing in common except that they both eat grass. However, what I want to tell you today is that cows and sheep are actually one family, and they belong to the same family of even-hoofed ruminants. In other words, cattle are bovines, and sheep are also bovines (is it very subversive of the three views). Okay, so I'm going to introduce you to what is called a bovine.
goat
A distinctive feature of bovines is that both males and females are horned. Moreover, the bone core and horn sheath of the bovine can grow for life, and if the horns are damaged, they can be re-grown. In addition, due to long-term herbivorous reasons, the canine and incisors of bovines have been severely degraded. In order to better digest food, bovines have evolved a very perfect rumination function (commonly known as inverted chewing, which refers to the return of semi-digested food from the stomach to the mouth and chewing again after some animals have eaten for a period of time).
Rock sheep
It can be said that bovines are the most evolutionaryly successful of all ungulates. It is for this reason that they are very adaptable to the environment, and almost half of all ungulates today are bovines.
According to the classification method of modern biology, there are 9 subfamilies of cattle, namely: the subfamily of the oryx, the subfamily sheep, the subfamily reed antelope, the subfamily of the short-horned antelope, the subfamily of the high-horned antelope, the subfamily of the antelope, the subfamily antelope, and the subfamily of the cattle.
argali
In other words, all the sheep in this world (including antelopes) are literally cattle. And they are a very large family among the bovine family, counting the antelope, there are 3 subfamilies and 26 genera. If you want to subdivide into species, there are hundreds of species. For example, a simple goat genus includes 9 species of Nubian goat, Spanish goat, Siberian northern goat, Westminster goat, Caucasian goat, tube horn goat, kudu goat, domestic goat, and goat.
Snow sheep
But there are so many species of creatures in the bovine family, in fact, the bovine subfamily is regarded as the "orthodox cow". And even in the bovine subfamily, there are other genera of animals. At present, the biological classification has divided a total of 8 genera under the subfamily Bovine. Among them, in addition to the five "orthodox cattle genera" of American bison genus, blue bull genus, cattle genus, African buffalo genus, and buffalo genus, there are also 3 "non-cattle" genera of forest antelope, African forest antelope and tetrapode.
Hyenas
To sum up: cattle are cattle, antelopes are cattle, sheep are cattle, and animals such as antelopes are actually cattle. However, for various reasons, even though some animals are actually cows, they have not received the name "cow".
Wallface thought:
Any creature in this world, or anything that should be said, their names are actually given to them after they appear. What they were originally called or what they were no longer cared about. The creatures that sit on high positions, what name they are given, they are what they are.
WeChat public account [New Animal World], about the sound and color of animal images...