In life, cattle and sheep are very common animals, and everyone can clearly distinguish who they are.
But today, I'll break your perception for so many years, and I'll tell you an amazing truth:
The sheep you think they are not sheep!
From a biological point of view, all sheep are actually cattle!
Today I will tell you why cattle and sheep are the same animal.
Oh my God!
After listening to the above words, I believe that many friends think: This is pure nonsense, I still can't tell the difference between cattle and sheep?
So I'll show you this cow first. Do you think it's a cow or a sheep?
Do you see me as a sheep or a cow?
This is in February of this year, the Shanghai Zoo unveiled a new baby cow cub.
After you read it, are you a little confused?
Isn't this cub a cow either? It's all a sheep! How can you call it Baby Cow?
Could it be that the staff got it wrong? Are they stupid enough to separate cows and sheep?
Pretty boy looked at it and was confused!
However, according to experts at the Shanghai Zoo, this newborn cub is called the horned antelope. Like yaks, wildebeests and impalas, it belongs to the same bovine family in terms of animal taxonomy.
They are all bovines!
In the current taxonomy, in addition to the bovine subfamily, it also includes more than 40 genera and species such as the sheep subfamily and the antelope subfamily.
These animals are all bovine families, and from the biological classification point of view, they are all cattle!
Not only is this horned antelope "cattle and sheep not divided", the following animals are also like cattle and not sheep.
The blue wildebeest, which lives in South Asia, looks like a strong goat as the largest antelope in Asia.
How much do you think I look like a cow?
The musk ox obviously looks like a cow, and when it is small, it looks like a black sheep. And it does belong to the cattle and sheep clan.
When you were a child, you won't be able to find musk oxen mixed with sheep!
And the wildebeest, although its name is called a horse, in fact, an antelope of the antelope subfamily, it also has a name called wildebeest, which means the same as the cow, and has nothing to do with the horse.
And these sheep, which do not look like "cattle" at all, in fact, they all belong to the same bovine family, and they are real cattle.
I'm a real "cow and horse"!
Some friends who have raised sheep and cattle at home may find that there are indeed many similarities between cattle and sheep:
1. They all have two hollow unforgeted, fixed horns that do not fall off.
2. They all have hooves that are good at running and climbing, and their hooves are both two lobes.
3. They all have four stomachs and are made into a popcorn that humans love.
4. They also have a unique rumination function, which is convenient for repeatedly chewing hay back and forth, making it easier to absorb the nutrients in the hay.
5. Both cows and sheep produce milk, and their meat is also very popular.
In this way, do you think that cattle and sheep are not so incredible?
The sky is vast and the wind blows the grass to show cattle and sheep
In biology, there is no sheep family, so to speak, there is only a sheep subfamily, which is a branch of the bovine family. Simply put, it is equivalent to the biological classification of humans and chimpanzees.
Bovines originated in the Miocene and were differentiated from ancient deer. The earliest cattle lived in Eurasia, and many fossils of early even-ungulate bovines were found in China, including primitive cattle, buffalo, bison, antelope and horned antelope.
It was not until the Miocene that forkhorn sheep appeared in cattle migrating to North America.
Evolutionary processes of primitive cattle
But since they are called cattle and sheep, there is still some difference between them.
In general, most animals have rounded pupils, but goats have a transversely square shape, similar to the eyes of an octopus. It looks a little evil and weird, and it's no wonder that in the West the goat is the embodiment of Satan.
From a scientific point of view, the goat's field of vision is between 320 degrees and 340 degrees, this ultra-wide angle eye allows the goat to perceive every move and everything around it, whether it is perching or eating, and at night, the goat can still see everything around it through this square pupil, thus avoiding enemy attacks.
The square pupils are indeed a bit scary!
As a member of the bovine family, sheep also have a strange place, that is, like lemmings, they will choose to commit mass suicide.
In 2014, 44 sheep jumped to their deaths in Nanshan Mucun, Hutubi County, Xinjiang. What is even more bizarre is that there have been many similar incidents in the local area. In 2003 and 2009, a total of 85 sheep committed mass suicide.
Coincidentally, in 2005, in a village in eastern Turkey, 1500 sheep jumped off a cliff en masse. The current speculation may be related to the misguided guidance of the bellwether.
The importance of bellwethers!
The world is so big, who would have thought that the common cow and sheep would be the same animal?
What other strange knowledge do you know? Leave a message in the comments section and let's learn together!
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