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Taxonomy:
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Artidactyla
Sub-order:
Ruminantia
Family:
Moschidae
The Musk Deer
The Fammily Moschidae has only one extant genus, Moschus in which are seven species.
The musk deer family differs from cervids, or true deer, by lacking antlers and facial glands and by possessing only a single pair of teats, a gallbladder, a caudal gland, a pair of tusk-like teeth and a musk gland which historically has been of particular economic importance to humans.
Musk deer live mainly in forested and alpine scrub habitats in the mountains of southern Asia, notably the Himalayas. Moschids are entirely Asian in their present distribution, being extinct in Europe where the earliest musk deer are known to have existed from Oligocene deposits
Genus:
Moschus
Species:
M. moschiferus
Siberian musk deer, NE Asia
Species:
M. anhuiensis
Anhui musk deer, Eastern China
Species:
M. berezovskii
Dwarf musk deer, S. China and N. Vietnam
Species:
M. fuscus
Black musk deer, Eastern Himalayas
Species:
M. chrysogaster
Alpine musk deer, Eastern Himalayas
Species:
M. cupreus
Kashmir musk deer, Western Himalayas and Hindu Kush
Species:
M. leucogastr
White-bellied musk deer, Central Himalayas
(m3an-chm-unge-mo-muskdeer) The Musk Deer
photo credit: Wikipedia Commons
The Muoschids are a family of even-toed ungulates that are characterized by long saber teeth instead of horns, antlers of ossicones. The musk deer are modest in size growing to less than 40 pounds in weight.
The family Moschidae has only one extant genus with seven known species. There are twelve extinct genus with about twenty-three known species.
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