What are the characteristics of the family Cervidae?

What are the characteristics of the family Cervidae?

deer, (family Cervidae), any of 43 species of hoofed ruminants in the order Artiodactyla, notable for having two large and two small hooves on each foot and also for having antlers in the males of most species and in the females of one species.

What are characteristics of a deer?

Characteristics typical of deer include long, powerful legs, a diminutive tail and long ears. Deer exhibit a broad variation in physical proportions.

What are the characteristics of a white tailed deer?

The white-tailed deer is tan or brown in the summer and grayish brown in winter. It has white on its throat, around its eyes and nose, on its stomach and on the underside of its tail. The male has antlers. Males weigh between 150 and 300 pounds and females weigh between 90 and 200 pounds.

How many species are there in Cervidae?

40 species
Deer (Cervidae) is a family of antlered, hoofed ruminants of the order Artiodactyla containing about 40 species worldwide.

What is the meaning of cervidae?

Definition of Cervidae : a large family of ruminant mammals (order Artiodactyla) that are distinguished from the related Bovidae by possession of solid deciduous antlers and that include deer, elk, moose, and related forms — compare antler.

What kind of animals are in the deer family?

Members of the deer family (Cervidae) are cloven-hoofed ungulates that typically have compact torsos with long, slender legs and small tails — and most males have antlers. The family is quite large, and includes caribou, elk, moose, muntjacs and wapiti.

What are animals in the deer family called?

Deer (or cervids) belong to the order Artiodactyla, the hoofed mammals with an even number of toes on each foot, and the suborder Ruminanti, the cud-chewing plant-eaters. Deer have four toes on each foot.

What type of animal is a white-tailed deer?

The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, Ecuador, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia.

What animals are in the Cervidae family?

Cervidae – deer, elk, moose. There are 55 species in this family, and they are found in all parts of the world, except for Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. The species in this family are found in a wide variety of habitats including forests, grasslands, and on the tundra. All of the species in this family are herbivores and ruminants.

What are the characteristics of a cervid?

Cervids have a large number of morphological synapomorphies (e.g., characteristics that are shared within a taxonomic group), and range in color from dark to very light brown; however, young are commonly born with cryptic coloration, such as white spots, that helps camouflage them from potential predators.

What are the characteristics of deer?

Deer are ruminant mammals belonging to the family Cervidae. This family classification include well known animals like the Moose, Red Deer, Reindeer, Roe and Chital among others. All male deer have antlers, with the exception of the Chinese Water Deer, which have tusks. This is a characteristic very specific of deer that most people know.

What is the classification of the deer family?

With these exclusions, Cervidae becomes the deer family, a consistent, natural grouping of species. In all but one species of deer, males carry antlers; in the reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus ), both sexes carry antlers.