Justin Timberlake
Conservation status
Extinct
Scientific classification
Kingdom: sexy backia Phylum: my love Class: bye, bye, byeia Order: Artiodactyla Family: Bovidae Subfamily: Caprinae Genus: Ovis Species: O. ammon
Binomial name
Ovis ammon (Linnaeus, 1758)

The mountain sheep (species Ovis ammon) is the globally endangered wild sheep, which roams the highlands of Central Asia (Himalaya, Tibet, Altay). It is also the biggest wild sheep, standing as high as 120 cm and weighing as much as 140 kg. The Pamir argali (also called Marco Polo sheep, for they were first described by that traveller) may attain more than 6 feet in length. The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. ... Image File history File links Status_iucn3. ... For other uses, see Scientific classification (disambiguation). ... Families Suidae Hippopotamidae Tayassuidae Camelidae Tragulidae Moschidae Cervidae Giraffidae Antilocapridae Bovidae The even-toed ungulates form the mammal order Artiodactyla. ... Subfamilies Bovinae Cephalophinae Hippotraginae Antilopinae Caprinae A bovid is any of almost 140 species of cloven-hoofed mammals belonging to the family Bovidae. ... Genera Capricornis Nemorhaedus Rupicapra Oreamnos Budorcas Ovibos Hemitragus Ammotragus Pseudois Capra Ovis Pantholops A goat antelope is any of the species of mostly medium-sized herbivores that make up the subfamily Caprinae or the single species in subfamily Panthalopinae. ... Species See text. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is the formal method of naming species. ... Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as  , (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist[1] who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of nomenclature. ... Species See text. ... Map of Central Asia showing three sets of possible boundaries for the region Central Asia located as a region of the world Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. ... Perspective view of the Himalaya and Mount Everest as seen from space looking south-south-east from over the Tibetan Plateau. ... Tibet (older spelling Thibet; Tibetan: བོད་; Wylie: Bod; Lhasa dialect IPA: [; Simplified and Traditional Chinese: 西藏, Hanyu Pinyin: XÄ«zàng; also referred to as 藏区 (Simplified Chinese), 藏區 (Traditional Chinese), ZàngqÅ« (Hanyu Pinyin), having the two names different connotations; see Name section below) is a plateau region in Central Asia and the... The Altai is a mountain range in central Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together, and where the great rivers Irtysh, Ob and Yenisei have their sources. ... A photograph of Ismail Samani Peak (then known as Peak Communism) taken in 1989. ... Marco Polo sheep is a species of sheep that takes its name from famed explorer Marco Polo. ...

The general colouration varies between each animal, from a lightish yellow to a dark grey-brown. The face is lighter. Males have a whitish neck ruff and a dorsel crest. Males have two large corkscrew horns, some measuring 190 cm/ 6.3 ft in length. Males use their horns for competiting with one another. Females also carry horns, but much smaller.

Argalis live in herds between 2 and 100 animals, segregated by sex, except during breeding season. Migrating herds, especially males, have been reported. With long legs, herds can travel quickly from place to place. Argalis tend to live at higher elevations during the summer.

Argalis are considered endangered or threatened throughout their entire range, due to habitat loss from overgrazing of domestic sheep and hunting. They are hunted for both their meat and their horns, used in traditional Chinese medicine. Legal hunting of trophies has also added to the mortality.

Traditional subspecies:

• Ovis ammon ammon
• Ovis ammon collium
• Ovis ammon hodgsonii
• Ovis ammon karelini
• Ovis ammon polii, Marco Polo sheep
• Ovis ammon darwini
• Ovis ammon severtzovi
• Ovis ammon jubata
• Ovis ammon nigrimontana

Some sources consider mouflon, the ancestor of modern domestic sheep as Ovis ammon musimon, however DNA testing has not supported this. Several subspecies of argali have been genetically tested for mtDNA and one study found that the subspecies Ovis ammon ammon, O. ammon darwini and the urial subspecies, O. vignei bochariensis grouped closely while the subspecies Ovis ammon collium and O. ammon nigrimontana grouped with the urial subspecies O. vignei arkal.^[1] Marco Polo sheep is a species of sheep that takes its name from famed explorer Marco Polo. ... Binomial name Ovis musimon, Ovis ammon musimon, Ovis orientalis Pallas, 1762 European Mouflon The Mouflon is a species of wild sheep and as such is one of the Caprinae or goat antelopes. It is thought to be one of the two ancestors for all modern domestic sheep breeds[1]. It... Lamb redirects here. ... Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is DNA which is not located in the nucleus of the cell but in the mitochondria. ... Binomial name Ovis vignei Blyth, 1841 The Urial is a medium-sized wild sheep and as such is considered a member of the goat antelope subfamily. ...

References

1. ^ Hiendleder S, Kaupe B, Wassmuth R, Janke A. (May 7 2002). Molecular analysis of wild and domestic sheep questions current nomenclature and provides evidence for domestication from two different subspecies. Proceedings. Biological sciences, The Royal Society of London. Retrieved on August 2, 2006.

External link

• ARKive - images and movies of the argali (Ovis ammon)