Of the ruminants, Brazil has only four or five species of Cervidae, which are likewise common to other countries of South America.
In geographical distribution the Bovidae present a remarkable contrast to the deer tribe, or Cervidae.
Both of these families are distributed over the whole of the northern hemisphere, but whereas the Cervidae are absent from Africa south of the Sahara and well represented in South America, the Bovidae are unknown in the latter area, but are extraordinarily abundant in Africa.
The group at the present day is divided into Girafjidae (giraffe and okapi), Cervidae (deer), Antilocapridae (prongbuck), and Bovidae (oxen, sheep, goats, antelopes, &c.).
Cervidae, of which it not improbably indicates the ancestral type.