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https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Artiodactyla/

http://www.nhptv.org/wild/artiodactyla.asp

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/g/giraffe/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/h/hippopotamus/

https://www.britannica.com/animal/boar-mammal

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/artio/artiofr.html

https://www.britannica.com/animal/artiodactyl/Evolution-and-paleontology

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0007062

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Descent with modification is the theory by Charles Darwin which states that the mix of the genes from the male and female parent creates an offspring that is different from the parents. In addition to receiving different alleles from both parents, mutations occur which can change major or minor aspects of the organism which can be beneficial or harmful.  This is present in the order Artiodactyla by phenotype changes such as fur color(black vs brown).

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Darwin's theory of natural selection states that the organisms with the traits better suited to survive will survive and then pass on the traits to it's offspring. This is present among the animals in the Order Artiodactyla. For example Giraffes developed long necks over a period of time due to a longer neck makes a giraffe more likely to survive. As vegetation is more abundant higher up, the giraffes with the longer necks will eat more, survive, then be able to produce offspring that will inherit the long neck trait. Now over a long period of time giraffes have necks reaching up to eight feet.

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Divergent Evolution occurs when two different species form from a signal common ancestor. This type of evolution is present many different times throughout the evolution of the Order Artiodactyla. For example the regular large hippopotamus and the pygmy hippo diverged about 6 million years ago and became two different species.

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The shansitherium is an extinct antelope/giraffe like animal. Present during the late Miocene period about 10 million years ago.

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About 30 million years ago. The peccary fossils shows very similar structures to a modern day wild pig.

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From about 54 million years ago. The earliest artiodactyls appeared in the early Eocene likely evolving from ancestors in a group of Cretaceous and Paleocene mammals, together known as condylarths. The oldest known true artiodactyl, Diacodexis, was about the size of a rabbit.

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The Phyologenetic tree shows the evolutionary path of the order Artiodactyla.

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All of the species of Artidodactyla share a common four legs. Since most of the animals graze and forage they use their four legs to travel easily to places with more plants or run from predators. All of the species share things such as multiple chambered stomachs for digesting plants and they all share a talus which is a part of the ankle bone.

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Embryology is the study of the development of the embryo in an organism. Relatedness of the early stages of development of an organisms can show evolutionary similarity. By looking at the embryos of different species part of the Artiododactyla Order you can see how they are similar.

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The Species Hippopotamus, Giraffe, and Wild Boar all contain the same taxonomic ranks of Kingdom (Animalia), Phylum(Chordata), Class(Mammalia), Order(Artiodactyla). Then after the order they all separate with different families.

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Kingdom- Animalia
Phylum- Chordata
Class- Mammalia
Order- Artiodactyla
Family- Suidae
Subfamily- Suinae
Genus- Sus
Species- Sus scrofa

The Wild Boar, also called the Wild Pig, is native to Western and Northern Europe, North Africa, and India. The Wild Boar has also been introduced to New Zealand and the United States. They live in heavily brushed areas which provides shelter form predators, mainly deciduous and mixed forests. The entire boar is hairy, colored brown and black. Boars for the most part live in groups, excluding old males who live a solitary life. Wild Boars are bulky very large pigs weighing up to 220 pounds.

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Kingdom- Animalia
Phylum- Chordata
Class- Mammalia
Order- Artiodactyla
Family- Giraffidae
Genus- Giraffa
Species- Camelopardalis

Giraffes are found in the regions of West Africa to Central Africa to South Africia.  They usually inhabit savannahs and woodlands. These habitats provide sufficient vegetation required for the large giraffes. Giraffes spend most of their day grazing/foraging for food. Giraffes have very distinguishing features that make them look very different than other species such as their pattern of spots and very long necks. A Giraffe's neck can reach over eight feet long. Many male Giraffes can weigh over 2,500 pounds. They are very social animals, congregating in herds.  The foot of a Giraffe consists of four toes and they feed off of vegetation normally consisting of acacia trees.

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Kingdom- Animalia
Phylum- Chordata
Class- Mammalia
Order-Artiodactyla
Family- Hippopotamidae
Genus- Hippopotamus
Species- Amphibius

Hippos are found in East/central Africa. Hippopotamuses thrive in the water and are semi-aquatic spending up to 16 hours a day in the water.   They live near lakes and rivers, they bask often in the water to keep their large bodies cool.  Their eyes and nostrils are located high on their heads, which allows them to see and breathe while being partially submerged. At night hippos leave the water, traveling up to 6 miles in a night to forage for food as a herd. They eat about 80 pounds of grass. when hippos are threatened they may run for the water, they are fast for their size reaching up to twenty miles an hour. They do not have many predators because of their size but young hippos are preyed upon. Hippos are enormous in size reaching up to 8,000 pounds.

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Although some artiodactyls are solitary, meaning they live alone, most are gregarious, meaning they live together in herd like communities. Living in these large groups allows for more protection form predators. Artiodactyls are not big fighters, to avoid encounters with predators they either vocalize(make noises) or display physical attributes. They display physical attributes such as horns, tusks, and antlers. When confrontation is unavoidable horns, tusks, and antlers are important for defending themselves.

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Artiodactyls are distributed throughout the globe in many different parts of the world.  They are present on every continent excluding Antarctica and Australia. They inhabit so many different places because they normally thrive wherever sufficient forage is available. They range form tropical forests to the tundra but many are located in open grasslands/meadows because these locations provide abundant forage while allowing for early/quick detection of approaching predators. Another popular environment for for Artiodactlys are forests/shurblands because they also provide abundant forage while offering protection from predators in the dense vegetation.

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All of the animals are even toed. Another part of the foot shared by all the species is the paraxonic foot structure. The paraxonic foot structure means that the symmetry of the foot passes between the two middle toes. The animals are also herbivores with a few exceptions. All Artiodactyls have a "false stomach" in addition to their regular stomach where bacterial fermentation occurs.
Many species of Artiodactlys travel as herds.

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The Order Artiodactyla is also commonly called even-toed ungulates. It is a very diverse group of organisms.  Some organisms in this order are pigs, hippos, giraffes, camels, sheep, goats, bison, cows, moose, deer, and pronghorns. There are about 220 different species, divided into 10 separate families. Artiodactyls are very different in size with hippos weighing up around 8000 lbs to Malay Mouse deer weighing just over 4 lbs.