An order of hooved mammals of the subclass Eutheria (including pigs and peccaries and hippopotami and members of the suborder Ruminantia) having an even number of functional toes.
As it turned out, whales were not only more closely-related to artiodactyls than to the mesonychids.
2
They actually are artiodactyls.
3
Biomolecular and genetic studies repeatedly found that whales were most closely related to the group of hoofed mammals called artiodactyls, particularly hippos.
4
The pig is an obvious choice due to its economic and medical importance as well as its evolutionary position in the artiodactyls.
1
More than 200 species of mammal are distinguished by possession of hooves, known as ungulates, and are divided into two orders, even-toed and odd-toed ungulates.
1
In the Artiodactyla the stomach is always complex, the complexity reaching a maximum in ruminating forms.
2
These differ materially from the foregoing section of the Artiodactyla by the construction of their digestive organs.