Cloven hoof

Members of the mammalian order Artiodactyla that possess this type of hoof include cattle, deer, pigs, antelopes, gazelles, goats, and sheep.

[2] The almost finger-like dexterity available to cloven-hooved mammals such as mountain goats and wild sheep combined with a hard outer shell and soft and flexible inner pads provides excellent traction in their precarious habitats.

The five-toed ancestors of the earliest Eocene had already developed feet that suggest odd-toed and even-toed descendants to the modern viewer.

[7] The distinction between cloven and uncloven hooves is highly relevant for dietary laws of Judaism (kashrut), as set forth in the Torah[8] and the Talmud.

[9][10] Animals that both chew their cud (ruminate, i.e. regurgitate partly digested food from a specialised multi-chambered stomach back to the mouth to be chewed for a second time as part of their ordinary digestive process) and have split true cloven hooves (a hoof being hard or rubbery sole and a hard wall formed by a thick nail) are allowed (kosher, lit.