Akimushkin Igor Ivanovich (1929-1993)

Born in Moscow in the family of an engineer. Graduated from the biology and soil faculty of Moscow State University (1952). Published since 1956.

His first books for children appeared in 1961: "Traces of Strange Beasts" and "Trail of Legends: Tales of Unicorns and Basilisks".

For kids, Igor Ivanovich wrote a number of books, using techniques that are typical for fairy tales and travel. These are: “Once upon a time there was a squirrel”, “Once upon a time there was a beaver”, “Once upon a time there was a hedgehog”, “Animals-builders”, “Who flies without wings?”, “Different animals”, “How does a rabbit look like a hare” and etc.

For teenagers, Akimushkin wrote books of a more complex genre - encyclopedic: "Animals of the River and Sea", "Entertaining Biology", "The Disappeared World", "The Tragedy of Wild Animals", etc.

Akimushkin focuses on topical issues of development, conservation and study of the animal world, the study of the behavior and psyche of animals. He wrote not only books for children and youth; but also scripts for popular science films. A number of Akimushkin's works have been translated into foreign languages. His most famous work is the book "The World of Animals".

"The World of Animals" is the most famous work of Igor Ivanovich Akimushkin, which has withstood several reprints. They summarize a huge scientific material, use a more modern classification scheme for the animal world, a lot of various facts from the life of animals, birds, fish, insects and reptiles, beautiful illustrations, photographs, funny stories and legends, cases from life and notes of an observer-naturalist. Six volumes of "The World of Animals" by Igor Ivanovich Akimushkin were published one after another for a decade - from 1971 to 1981. They were printed by the Young Guard publishing house in the popular Eureka series. For ten years, readers managed to grow up and fall in love with these books for life. The first and second told about mammals, the third - about birds, the fourth - about fish, amphibians and reptiles, the fifth - about insects, the sixth - about domestic animals.

The first book, The World of Animals, tells about seven orders of mammals: cloacae, marsupials, insectivores, winged wings, carnivores, artiodactyls and artiodactyls.

Why was Australia inhabited only by marsupials and egg-laying animals before the arrival of man? Who is stronger: a lion, a tiger or a bear? Secrets behind the needles - about the incomprehensible habits of hedgehogs. Igor Akimushkin invites readers to make an exciting journey with him to the animal kingdom. In this book, the author talks about the world of mammals. The theme of human responsibility for the fate of the animals of our planet runs like a red thread through the entire book.

Book:

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In bovids, both males and females (with rare exceptions) wear a pair, or even two pairs of horns. The fact that their horns are hollow, that is, empty inside, should not seem to be in doubt, and, however, this is not entirely true: the horns are, as it were, “implanted” on rods protruding from the frontal bone.

Shape and size? Here, as the old writers said, "the pen falls out of hand." Lumpy, folded, faceted, smooth, twisted, twisted steering wheel, just straight - in general, all sorts. The length and width are also different: from miniature hairpins to huge rapiers. The circumference of the argali horns at the base, for example, is about 50 centimeters.

The horns of the bovids grow all their lives, but never branch. They consist of a substance of epidermal origin, an excellent material for making glue (the Chinese, as usual, make medicines from them). Strongly civilized hunters (for example, those who have impoverished the fauna of Africa) use hollow horns for ... Well, E. Hemingway answered this question to one African: “Tell him that, according to the customs of our tribe, we give horns to the richest friends. Also tell me that this is a very exciting event and sometimes people with unloaded pistols are chasing some of our fellow tribesmen.”

Bovid-horned animals are called "horned" by some zoologists. Horns are for everyone. All sorts of horns: straight and sharp meter bayonets; curved like sabers, twisted by a corkscrew; twisted into a "ram's horn"; small as hairpins - a great variety. Horns in females and males, less often only in males. Some are born with the beginnings of horns, many are polled at birth.

Why do you need horns? It would seem an idle question: for defense and attack. Always thought so. But lately there have been doubts.

If for defense, then why do females, who in this case need horns the most, often do not have them at all or are they small? Previously, it went without saying that strong and horned males protect females with cubs. But the males of many bovids do not even think about protecting their females and children. If the predator is strong and it is useless to fight, they usually get away first. But even if the predator is small and the horns could be useful to drive it away, even such seemingly strange things were noticed: the male rushes not to help the female, but to her! When, for example, a female Thomson's gazelle happens to injure and drive a jackal away from her cub and she rushes in pursuit of a predator, the male immediately rushes after her and forces her to turn back. What for? Yes, because he is afraid that she would not run away from his harem. This possessive - more precisely, sexual - instinct suppresses the instinct of caring for offspring in the male.

Not everyone does this, but many do. True, in musk oxen and American snow goats, when threatened by a wolf attack, males always combine their efforts to repel predators. Large bulls, buffaloes for example, do not give in to lions either. It's right. But here's what's interesting: both buffaloes, and musk oxen, and snow goats, that is, those who most actively use their horns, do not have the best device at all. Either small, like a bighorn goat, or too curved. And here straight lines, sharp as swords would be needed.

But maybe horns are needed to fight relatives for females and territory? Indeed, male gazelles, for example, and many other bovids butt each other ten times a day. But the horns are used with great care, not for mutilation, but for ritual confrontation. Of course, it happens, and often, when mortal wounds are inflicted with a blow to the side, in the most unprotected place. But this is rather an exception. Usually, males, before the fight, according to the rules that evolution has laid down in their instincts, stand in a certain position: head to head. Here the blows are delivered with flat horns. Such fencing, there is no need for a better word, is the custom of antelopes. At the same time, some even kneel (roan antelope and nilgai) and, straining their strength, try to push or knock down the enemy. Roan antelope rest in this power struggle with the middle of the horns curved back, and the nilgai - with their foreheads. Nilgai, twisting their necks, are trying to knock down an opponent. And all this while on your knees!

By the way, wrestling with necks is one of the original ritual forms. Just like bites. In the course of evolution, in many species, it was replaced by fencing and confrontation with linked horns. It is interesting that in females and cubs, which do not have horns or they are small, as a kind of atavism, the more ancient ritual tactics of fighting have been preserved: bites, kicks, neck grabbing, forehead blow to the side.

It is the hornless females that hit more often not on the forehead, but on the side. Males almost never: otherwise they would have killed each other in the very first skirmishes. The ritual rules of fighting (of course, not consciously observed, but instinctive), developed over millions of years of evolution, are designed to protect fighters from severe injuries and death in skirmishes. It is wonderful!

Duels of rams at first glance are quite dangerous: they scatter and knock their heads together with a crash.

But they can afford this entertainment, because their horns, necks, and frontal bones are strong and withstand such blows well. But the foreheads of goats are not suitable for a battering ram. They fight by hitting horns with their horns from above, and therefore stand on their hind legs before the blow. You can not keep a goat in the same enclosure with a ram. The goat is arrogant, poorly calculates its strength, and the ram has an armored skull. And if the ram, having run up, hits the goat directly on the forehead, it can kill, break its neck or pierce its skull.

In addition to certain fighting rules that limit injury, all animals and bovids also have special postures of submission and appeasement that allow the weak to avoid a fight. Thomson's gazelles have a recumbent, with a neck extended along the ground. Some fall to their knees. Therefore, the bull in the arena freezes and does not rush at the matador when he, kneeling at the very muzzle of the bull, does his tricks. The healthy instincts of an animal paralyze its aggressiveness, and a man with a sword, violating the morality of nature, acts in this case as a sadist: after all, everyone knows the continuation.

That's about the horns for now. Now about those who wear them on their heads.

This is an extensive family. Everything in it is ruminant, all artiodactyls: 128 species. They are divided in different ways and into a different number of subfamilies. Take, for example, a subdivision, perhaps the least complex:

1. Bull: 13 wild and domesticated bull species (buffaloes, zebu, gaur, gayal, cowprey, bison, bison, yak, etc.); 9 species of African markhorn antelopes (kudu, nyala, sitatunga, eland, bongo, etc.) and 2 species of Asian antelopes (nilgai and four-horned).

2. Duikers: the smallest of the antelopes, 17 species, all African.

3. Horse antelopes: waterbucks, reedboks, oryxes, bases, saber-horned and horse antelopes, cow antelopes (bog, kongoni, wildebeest) - 24 species, all African, except for the Arabian oryx, almost exterminated.

4. Gazelles: impalas, dik-diks, oribi, beyrs, gerenuk (giraffe gazelle), Thomson's gazelle, goitered gazelle, gazelle - 37 predominantly African and partly Asian species.

5. Goats: goats, rams, chamois, gorals, saigas, takins, musk oxen - 26 mainly Asian, European, partly North American and African species.

There are no wild bovids in South America, just like in Australia.

So, about the bulls. But before we start, let's digress a little for one necessary clarification. It concerns the word "antelope", which is more literary and common than zoological in the strict scientific sense. In general, antelopes are usually called those bovids that are not bulls, rams or goats. Antelopes of medium height are also called gazelles, and the smallest ones are called duikers.

Large kudu live in Africa - from Ethiopia to Angola and the Zambezi River in the south. Lesser kudu is found only in Somalia and eastern Africa.

Large kudu live in Africa - from Ethiopia to Angola and the Zambezi River in the south.

Lesser kudu is found only in Somalia and eastern Africa.

“The beast is like eating a horse, terrible and invincible, having a great horn between the ears, its body is copper, having all the strength in a rose. Do not have friends for yourself, lives 532 years. And when he throws his horn into the sea, and from it grows a worm; and from that there is a unicorn beast. And the old beast is not strong without a horn, becomes an orphan and dies.

This is how the Russian alphabetists talked about the unicorn, they actually talked too “literarily”, because the prototype of the unicorn, as it turns out, was ... a bull.

Archaeologists, excavating on the site of the ancient cities of the Middle East, found Assyrian and Babylonian bas-reliefs and writings, from which it turned out that the Hebrew word "reem", translated by the compilers of the Greek Bible as "unicorn", actually meant a wild bull of a tour, completely two-horned.

The royal, or dwarf, antelope is the smallest of the antelopes: only 25 to 30 centimeters tall. Her jumps are magnificent - almost three meters in length. Royal antelopes live in West Africa (Liberia, Nigeria). The second, somewhat larger species is found in Nigeria and Cameroon.

So tour. He is (at the withers) up to two meters tall, weighing a ton! The suit is black, cows and calves are red. But one can argue about color ... Remember the epics: “She wrapped Dobrynya with a bay tour”, “Where the nests go nine tours” ... Our ancestors were not color blind to confuse black with red! And yet the tour is considered to be black, or rather, “he was black”, where the short “was” completely deprives us of the opportunity to find out the true truth.

For these bulls are no longer there. They were exterminated. And although it happened quite recently, the tour was thoroughly forgotten everywhere. He remained in epics, proverbs, some ancient rituals (for example, at Christmas time they dressed up as a tour) and in the names of places and surnames: Turovo, Tours, Turov log, Turov howl, Turzhets, Turov. The canton of Uri in Switzerland, whose citizen Dostoyevsky's Stavrogin was called, also owes its name to a wild bull: "Urus" in Latin, "ur" in German - the names of the tour.

But still, the assertion that the bull was black has serious grounds. Various images of the tour have come down to us, and the best of them is the famous Augsburg painting. It was found in an antique shop by the English zoologist Smith. It was drawn at the beginning of the 16th century by some Polish artist (and just about three hundred years ago, the tour disappeared from the face of the Earth). This, it turns out, “posthumous” portrait (it disappeared, only a copy made by Smith has survived) depicted the tour in black - presumably, not for the sake of mourning.

But, of course, whatever it may be, the image cannot serve as a sufficiently serious evidence, because artists in all ages were very inclined in their works to different liberties (Assyrian and Babylonian bas-reliefs, for example, on which the tours are one-horned, and the horses are "double ': they only have two legs).

The proof is elsewhere. In 1921, the German zoologists brothers Lutz and Heinz Heck, having traveled around Europe in search of "tour-shaped" bulls and cows (and finding suitable ones), began a remarkable experiment: they decided to revive the tour using backcrossing methods.

The “restored” tours have everything like the extinct one: black color, large sharp horns. And cows and calves are bay, which means that geneticists have achieved the most difficult thing: sexual and age dimorphism, that is, different colors and appearances of females, males and cubs. And finally: the “restored” tour is so similar to the one depicted in the Augsburg drawing that it seems as if they were drawn from it.

But even in the last century, even some serious naturalists did not believe that there was such a bull on Earth - a tour. Everything that the ancients told about him was attributed to the bison. Even V. I. Dal identifies the words “tour” and “bison”, although he could not do this, because by the time he compiled his famous dictionary, the French anatomist and paleontologist Georges Cuvier had already proved that the long-horned big bull - tour.

Duikers - there are probably seventeen species - are found throughout Africa south of Sudan. Growth in the shoulders in different species is from 35 to 50 centimeters, and weight oi 5 to 65 kilograms. In all but the gray duiker, in which females are usually hornless, both sexes wear small horns.

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The bovid family includes 140 species ranging from the 5 kg dikdik to the 1000 kg bison. An important difference is the horns: they are almost always one pair (an exception is the genus of four-horned antelopes), and the length can be from 2 cm to 1.5 meters. Some species have horns only in males, but most have them in both sexes. These are bony structures firmly connected to the skull. Unlike deer and pronghorns, bovids never have branched horns.

The largest representative of the family is the gaur (up to 2.2 m tall at the withers and weighing more than a ton), and the smallest is the pygmy antelope (weighs no more than 3 kg and is as tall as a large domestic cat).

The main part of the bovids lives in open areas. The African savannahs are an ideal living space for many species. There are also species that live in mountainous areas or in forests.

Digestive system

Most members of the family are herbivores, although some antelopes may eat animal food as well. Like other ruminants, bovids have a four-chambered stomach, which allows them to digest plant foods such as grasses that cannot be used as food by many other animals. Such food contains a lot of cellulose, and not all animals are able to digest it. However, the digestive system of ruminants, which are all bovids, is able to digest such food.

Horns

The horns are attached to a protruding frontal bone. The length and width are different (girth of argali horns, for example, is 50 cm). The horns of the bovids grow all their lives, but never branch. Consist of a substance of epidermal origin. Basically, the horns are used by males in skirmishes with relatives.

Evolution

Historically, bovids are a relatively young group of animals. The oldest fossil that can be safely attributed to the bovids is the genus Eotragus (English) Russian from the Miocene. These animals resembled modern crested duikers, were no larger than roe deer and had very small horns. Even during the Miocene, this genus split, and in the Pleistocene all the important lineages of modern bovids were already represented. In the Pleistocene, bovids migrated along the then existing natural bridge from

general characteristics

The bovid family includes 140 species ranging from the 5 kg dikdik to the 1000 kg bison. An important difference is the horns: they are almost always one pair (an exception is the genus of four-horned antelopes), and the length can be from 2 cm to 1.5 meters. Some species have horns only in males, but most have them in both sexes. These are bony structures firmly connected to the skull. Unlike deer and pronghorns, bovids never have branched horns. The largest representative of the family is the gaur (up to 2.2 m tall at the withers and weighing more than a ton), and the smallest is the pygmy antelope (weighs no more than 3 kg and is as tall as a large domestic cat).

The main part of the bovids lives in open areas. The African savannahs are an ideal living space for many species. There are also species that live in mountainous areas or in forests.

Digestive system

Most members of the family are herbivores, although some antelopes may eat animal food as well. Like other ruminants, bovids have a four-chambered stomach, which allows them to digest plant foods such as grasses that cannot be used as food by many other animals. Such food contains a lot of cellulose, and not all animals are able to digest it. However, the digestive system of ruminants, which are all bovids, is able to digest such food.

Horns

The horns are attached to a protruding frontal bone. The length and width are different (the girth of the argali horns, for example, is 50 cm). The horns of the bovids grow all their lives, but never branch. Consist of a substance of epidermal origin. Basically, the horns are used by males in skirmishes with relatives.

Evolution

In historical terms, bovids are a relatively young group of animals. The oldest fossil that can be safely attributed to the bovids is the genus Eotragus(en:Eotragus) from the Miocene. These beasts resembled modern crested duikers, were no larger than roe deer, and had very small horns. Even during the Miocene, this genus split, and in the Pleistocene all the important lineages of modern bovids were already represented. During the Pleistocene, bovids migrated across the then-existing natural bridge from Eurasia to North America. Bovids did not naturally make their way to South America and Australia, but domesticated species today exist in almost all countries of the world.

According to geneticists, the time of separation of ruminants ( Ruminantia) on bovids ( Bovidae) and giraffes ( Giraffidae) has been dated to 28.7 million years ago (Oligocene).

Classification

Bovids are currently subdivided into eight subfamilies:

• Subfamily Aepycerotinae- Impala
• Subfamily Alcelaphinae- Bubals, or cow antelope
• Subfamily Antilopinae- Real antelopes
• Subfamily Bovinae- Bulls and Markhorn Antelopes
• Subfamily caprinae- Goat
• Subfamily Cephalophinae- Duikers
• Subfamily Hippotraginae- Saber-horned Antelopes
• Subfamily Reduncinae- Water goats

This family also includes fossil genera:

• † Pachytragus

see also

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Notes

An excerpt characterizing Bovids

- Sonya? are you sleeping? Mum? she whispered. No one answered. Natasha slowly and cautiously got up, crossed herself and carefully stepped with her narrow and flexible bare foot on the dirty cold floor. The floorboard creaked. She, quickly moving her feet, ran like a kitten a few steps and took hold of the cold bracket of the door.
It seemed to her that something heavy, evenly striking, was knocking on all the walls of the hut: it was beating her heart, which was dying from fear, from horror and love, bursting.
She opened the door, stepped over the threshold and stepped onto the damp, cold earth of the porch. The chill that gripped her refreshed her. She felt the sleeping man with her bare foot, stepped over him and opened the door to the hut where Prince Andrei lay. It was dark in this hut. In the back corner, by the bed, on which something was lying, on a bench stood a tallow candle burnt with a large mushroom.
In the morning, Natasha, when she was told about the wound and the presence of Prince Andrei, decided that she should see him. She didn't know what it was for, but she knew that the date would be painful, and she was even more convinced that it was necessary.
All day she lived only in the hope that at night she would see him. But now that the moment had come, she was terrified of what she would see. How was he mutilated? What was left of him? Was he like that, what was that unceasing groan of the adjutant? Yes, he was. He was in her imagination the personification of that terrible moan. When she saw a vague mass in the corner and took his knees raised under the covers by his shoulders, she imagined some kind of terrible body and stopped in horror. But an irresistible force pulled her forward. She cautiously took one step, then another, and found herself in the middle of a small cluttered hut. In the hut, under the images, another person was lying on benches (it was Timokhin), and two more people were lying on the floor (they were a doctor and a valet).
The valet got up and whispered something. Timokhin, suffering from pain in his wounded leg, did not sleep and looked with all his eyes at the strange appearance of a girl in a poor shirt, jacket and eternal cap. The sleepy and frightened words of the valet; "What do you want, why?" - they only made Natasha come up to the one that lay in the corner as soon as possible. As terrifying as this body was, it must have been visible to her. She passed the valet: the burning mushroom of the candle fell off, and she clearly saw Prince Andrei lying on the blanket with outstretched arms, just as she had always seen him.
He was the same as always; but the inflamed complexion of his face, the brilliant eyes fixed enthusiastically on her, and especially the tender childish neck protruding from the collar of his shirt, gave him a special, innocent, childish look, which, however, she had never seen in Prince Andrei. She walked over to him and, with a quick, lithe, youthful movement, knelt down.
He smiled and extended his hand to her.

For Prince Andrei, seven days have passed since he woke up at the dressing station in the Borodino field. All this time he was almost in constant unconsciousness. The fever and inflammation of the intestines, which were damaged, in the opinion of the doctor who was traveling with the wounded, must have carried him away. But on the seventh day he ate with pleasure a piece of bread with tea, and the doctor noticed that the general fever had decreased. Prince Andrei regained consciousness in the morning. The first night after leaving Moscow was quite warm, and Prince Andrei was left to sleep in a carriage; but in Mytishchi the wounded man himself demanded to be carried out and to be given tea. The pain inflicted on him by being carried to the hut made Prince Andrei moan loudly and lose consciousness again. When they laid him down on the camp bed, he lay with his eyes closed for a long time without moving. Then he opened them and whispered softly: “What about tea?” This memory for the small details of life struck the doctor. He felt his pulse and, to his surprise and displeasure, noticed that the pulse was better. To his displeasure, the doctor noticed this because, from his experience, he was convinced that Prince Andrei could not live, and that if he did not die now, he would only die with great suffering some time later. With Prince Andrei they carried the major of his regiment Timokhin, who had joined them in Moscow, with a red nose, wounded in the leg in the same Battle of Borodino. They were accompanied by a doctor, the prince's valet, his coachman and two batmen.

9.4. Bovid family - Bovidae

This family includes antelopes, goats, rams, bulls. All of them have horns without processes that do not change during life. The horn consists of a hollow horn sheath, impaled on a bony outgrowth of the skull, and grows from the base. Females have smaller or absent horns than males. On the tracks of bovids, there are almost never prints of additional hooves. Most of our bovids are inhabitants of the steppes, deserts and mountains, but there are also forest species and one arctic. In steppe species, the hooves are small and very hard; the inhabitants of the mountains have hooves with an elastic inside, which "stick" to the rocks, like the rubber shoes of climbers, and also absorb shock when jumping from stone to stone.

In Russia, there are bovids of eight genera.

• - taxonomic category in biol. systematics. S. unites close genera that have a common origin. The Latin name of C. is formed by adding the endings -idae and -aseae to the base of the name of the type genus.

  Dictionary of microbiology

• - family - One of the main categories in biological systematics, unites genera that have a common origin; also - a family, a small group of individuals related by blood relationship and including parents and their offspring ...
• - family, taxonomic category in the taxonomy of animals and plants ...

  Veterinary Encyclopedic Dictionary

• - A highly productive group of breeding queens descended from an outstanding ancestor and descendants similar to her in type and productivity ...

  Terms and definitions used in breeding, genetics and reproduction of farm animals

• - taxonomic. category in biol. systematics. In S., close genera are united. For example, S. squirrels include genera: squirrels, marmots, ground squirrels, etc....

  Natural science. encyclopedic Dictionary

• - Taxonomic category of related organisms, rank below the order and above the genus. usually consists of several genera ...

  Physical Anthropology. Illustrated explanatory dictionary

• - Thomas Nash had two sons - Anthony and John - each of whom Shakespeare bequeathed 26 shillings 8 pence for the purchase of mourning rings. The brothers acted as witnesses in some of the playwright's transactions...

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• - ...

  Sexological Encyclopedia

• - taxonomic category between order and genus. Contains a single genus or monophyletic group of genera sharing a common origin...

  Ecological dictionary

• - in biology - part of the CLASSIFICATION of living organisms above the KIND and below the GROUP. The names of families are written with a capital letter, for example, Feline - for a family that includes all types of cats ...

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• - Alu-family - A family of moderately repetitive DNA sequences known in many mammals and some other organisms...

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• - a term very close, and for some authors coinciding with the term ore formation. According to Magaqian, “paragenetic ass. m-fishing and elements, formed in certain geol. and physico-chemical. conditions”...

  Geological Encyclopedia

• - or crested antelope - a species of antelope ...

  Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron

• - Goat, artiodactyl ruminant animal of the bovid family. The ancestors of domestic K. are considered to be two existing wild species of goats - bezoar goats and markhor goats, as well as the extinct species C. prisca ...
• - Mendez, artiodactyl mammal of the bovid family. The body length of males is up to 2 m, the height at the withers is about 1 m, they weigh up to 120 kg. Females are somewhat smaller. Males and females have long lyre-shaped horns with transverse rings...

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• - Jumper, artiodactyl mammal of the bovid family. Body length 120-140 cm, tail length up to 87 cm, weight 32-36 kg. The back and sides are yellow-brown, with dark stripes on the sides; head and underside of body are white...

  Great Soviet Encyclopedia

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Family POLOROGIE
(Bovidae)

/ / Bovid /
/ / Bovidae /

Family POLOROGIE (Bovidae) This is the most extensive family of artiodactyls both in terms of the number of species and the diversity of biological types: from tiny dik diks, almost the size of hares, to huge bulls, from light, slender gazelles to massive rams. The most clear and constant sign of the bovids is the structure of the horns, although their shape and size are extremely diverse. The horn is a bone rod that develops on the outgrowths of the frontal bones. This rod is dressed in a horn sheath that grows with the rod, never branches and is not completely replaced throughout life. The growth of the horny substance occurs from below, from the base. In most bovids, both males and females have horns, but in females they are usually smaller. There are also hornless females.

In the dental system of bovids, the absence of upper incisors and canines is characteristic. They have very strongly developed skin glands on the head, at the base of the tail, in the groin, between the hooves and on some other parts of the body. Bovids are geologically one of the youngest families. The earliest finds of their remains date back to the Lower Miocene of Eurasia. Representatives of the genera Archaeomeryx and Geolocus from the Eocene of Southeast Asia are usually considered as initial forms; they were small hornless ungulates, close to deer. In Europe, bovids appeared in the Miocene, and in Africa - the modern center of their development - only in the Lower Pliocene. The geographical distribution of bovids covers Africa, Eurasia and North America. They are completely absent in South America and Australia (with the exception of domestic animals introduced by man). The ability of bovids to master a wide variety of landscapes is unusually wide, from tundra and highlands to tropical forests, steppes and even waterless deserts. This is one of the most progressive features of the family, which speaks of the evolutionary flowering of the group as a whole. There is no single, generally accepted view of the bovid system. Studies of recent years, carried out in Europe, Asia, and especially in Africa, however, have made it possible, however, to form a fairly complete picture of the total volume of the family and the order of arrangement of subfamilies, genera and species. We subdivide the bovid family into 10 subfamilies with 53 genera and approximately 115 species. It should be noted that the widely used term "antelopes", which refers to the vast majority of ungulates in Africa, does not have the meaning of a systematic category and unites species that are very distant both in origin and in appearance. Almost all bovids are among the important game animals. True, some of them have now become rare and are under protection. The most important domestic animals belong to this family. DUKERS (Cephalophinae) (Subfamily) Duikers are medium-sized, typically African antelopes; the largest of them reach the size of a roe deer, the smallest are slightly larger than a hare. Despite their small size and disproportionately thin legs, duikers have a rather dense build; their hind limbs are somewhat longer than the forelimbs, which makes the animal appear hunched. The horns are short, usually straight, rarely slightly curved, often absent in females. On the forehead is a crest of coarse hair, which partially hides the horns. Females are somewhat larger than males. The subfamily includes 2 genera: bush duikers (Sylvicapra) and crested or forest duikers (Cephalophus). Dwarf Antelopes (Neotraginae) (Subfamily) Like duikers, pygmy antelopes are among the smallest representatives of the bovid family. The subfamily includes 8 genera with 14 species, although such a division cannot be called completely established and generally accepted. ANTELOPES (Tragelaphinae) (Subfamily) Animals of medium and large sizes, their horns (with a few exceptions) are twisted into a more or less pronounced spiral. The subfamily contains 4 genera with 10 species distributed in Africa and South Asia. Cow Antelopes (Alcelaphinae) (Subfamily) Cow antelopes are animals with a very peculiar appearance. An elongated narrow head with strongly curved, more or less S-shaped horns, a sharply sloping back from the shoulders to the sacrum, and a long tail ending in a magnificent brush make it possible at first glance to distinguish representatives of this subfamily from all other African antelopes. Both males and females are armed with horns. The taxonomy of cow antelopes is complex due to wide geographical variability and only recently has been developed in detail by the German zoologist T. Haltenort. In what follows (with a few exceptions) we adhere to the system proposed by this researcher. The family of cow antelopes includes 3 genera and 6 species. Saber Antelopes (Hippotraginae) (Subfamily) Large, strong and at the same time slender, armed with long beautifully shaped horns, saber-horned antelopes are among the most beautiful animals in Africa. The subfamily contains 3 genera with 5 species. WATER GOATS (Reduncinae) (Subfamily) Large or medium-sized antelope with slightly curved or lyre-shaped horns (only males have horns). The subfamily includes 3 genera with 8 species distributed only in Africa. Despite their name, waterbucks have nothing to do with real goats. GAZELLES (Antilopinae) (Subfamily) With the word "gazelle" we associate the idea of ​​a slender, graceful and graceful animal. Indeed, all the antelopes included in this subfamily are unusually slender and light in build, with a beautifully raised head, adorned with thin black lyre-shaped horns. Harmony and perfection are felt in the whole appearance of gazelles. At the same time, despite their apparent fragility, gazelles are strong and hardy animals that can endure the difficult conditions of deserts and semi-deserts. Gazelles are usually high-legged, and their growth reaches 100-120 cm at the withers with a mass of up to 70-85 kg; usually they are much smaller. In most species, both males and females have horns (in some species of gazelles, females have no horns). Coloration is usually uniform grayish-sandy or brownish with a lighter underside. Sometimes a dark stripe runs along the sides of the body, but there are no transverse stripes on the body. Often the head is decorated with the so-called facial pattern of longitudinal dark and light stripes. Representatives of the subfamily inhabit deserts, steppes, savannahs and dry light forests of Africa, Western, Central and Central Asia. Species belonging to this subfamily have been known in Asia since the Upper Miocene, and their cradle apparently lies in Western Asia. In Africa, where they are now the most diverse, gazelles appeared only in the Pleistocene, possibly at the end of the Pliocene. According to modern concepts, the subfamily includes 7 genera with 19 species. However, the taxonomy of gazelles is not sufficiently developed, and, probably, part of the species of the genus of gazelles proper (Gazella), of which there are about 12 according to the latest reports, will turn out to be only subspecies in further study. The lifestyle of most gazelles is poorly understood. The exception is the goitered gazelle and some gazelles inhabiting East Africa. Saigas (Saiginae) (Subfamily) Animals united in this subfamily occupy an intermediate position between gazelles and goats. In addition to the saiga, this includes the orongo, a little-studied ungulate from Tibet. GOATS AND RAMS (Caprinae) (Subfamily) This subfamily unites the bovids, which are very diverse in appearance, belonging to 11 genera and 16-20 species. Despite noticeable differences in size, structure, and shape of the horns, the species included in this subfamily represent a single group, the extreme members of which are interconnected by a long chain of related forms. The subfamily consists of three groups, to which modern taxonomists attach the importance of tribes. According to the number of genera included in the subfamily, experts have no disagreements, but the number of species of true goats (Sarga) and rams (Ovis) remains unclear. Representatives of the subfamily are known from the Upper Miocene of Eurasia. Later, already in the Pleistocene, some species settled in Africa and America, but even now they reach the greatest diversity in Asia. This subfamily includes two species of important farm animals - goats and sheep. BULLS (Bovinae) (Subfamily) Bulls are the largest of the bovids. These are powerful and strong animals. Their massive body rests on strong limbs, a heavy, wide, low-set head in both males and females is crowned with horns, thick and short in some species, flattened and long in others. The shape of the horns is also very variable in different representatives: in some cases, the horns resemble a simple crescent, in others they are S-shaped. There are no interhoof glands. The tail is relatively thin, with a brush at the end. The coat is short, close to the body, or thick and shaggy. Representatives of the subfamily are distributed in Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. The subfamily includes 4 genera with 10 species, of which one in the wild was exterminated by man in historical time, but exists in the form of numerous breeds of domestic cows, which were also brought to South America and Australia.