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Which toes bear most of an artiodactyl’s body weight?
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artiodactyl
Reticulated giraffe (Giraffa reticulata), Kenya.
In all artiodactyls, the main weight-bearing axis of the leg passes through the third and fourth toes together. This structural arrangement is known as paraxonic support. As these mammals evolved, the third and fourth toes developed increasingly, while the second and fifth toes, which flank them, underwent a parallel decline.12