Mammals (formally Mammalia) are a class of vertebrate, air-breathing animals whose females are characterized by the possession of mammary glands while both males and females are characterized by sweat glands, hair and/or fur, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex region in the brain.
Types of Mammals
Mammals are basically charaterized into nine groups, here is the list of all its varieties:
Armadillo
Bats
- Big Brown Bat
- Brazilian Free-tailed Bat
- Eastern Pipistrelle
- Hoary Bat
- Little Brown Bat
- Townsend's Big-eared Bat
Carnivores
- American Badger
- American Marten
- Arctic Fox
- Black Bear
- Black-footed Ferret
- Bobcat
- Cat
- Cheetah
- Common Gray Fox
- Common Hog-nosed Skunk
- Common Raccoon
- Coyote
- Dog
- Fisher
- Giant Panda
- Gray Wolf
- Grizzly Bear
- Jaguar
- Kit Fox
- Least Weasel
- Lion
- Long-tailed Weasel
- Lynx
- Meerkat
- Mink
- Mountain Lion
- Northern River Otter
- Ocelot
- Polar Bear
- Red Fox
- Red Wolf
- Ringtail
- Sea Otter
- Striped Skunk
- Tiger
- Western Spotted Skunk
- White-nosed Coati
- Wolverine
Hoofed Mammals
- African Elephant
- American Bison
- Bighorn Sheep
- Black Rhinoceros
- Caribou
- Collared Peccary
- Dall's Sheep
- Elk
- Giraffe
- Hippopotamus
- Moose
- Mountain Goat
- Mule Deer
- Muskox
- Pronghorn
- White-tailed Deer
- Wild Horse
- Zebras
Marine Mammals
- Blue Whale
- Bottle-nosed Dolphin
- California Sea Lion
- Gray Seal
- Gray Whale
- Harbor Seal
- Humpback Whale
- Killer Whale
- Manatee
- Northern Elephant Seal
- Northern Fur Seal
- Northern Right Whale
- Pacific White-sided Dolphin
- Saddle-backed Dolphin
- Short-finned Pilot Whale
- Sperm Whale
- Steller Sea Lion
Pouched Mammals
Primates
- Baboons
- Chimpanzee
- Gibbons
- Gorilla
- Lemurs
- Mandrill
- Orangutan
- Patas Monkey
- Slow Lorises
- Squirrel Monkeys
Rabbits
- Antelope Jackrabbit
- Black-tailed Jackrabbit
- Eastern Cottontail
- Snowshoe Hare
- White-tailed Jackrabbit
Rodents and Moles
- Abert's Squirrel
- American Beaver
- Black-tailed Prairie Dog
- Common Muskrat
- Common Porcupine
- Deer Mouse
- Eastern Chipmunk
- Eastern Gray Squirrel
- Eastern Mole
- House Mouse
- Meadow Vole
- Norway Rat
- Nutria
- Ord's Kangaroo Rat
- Red Squirrel
- Southern Flying Squirrel
- Star-nosed Mole
- Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel
- Woodchuck
- Yellow-pine Chipmunk
Ten Facts about Mammals
- Most mammals are covered with hair or fur, and most have specialized teeth that help them to cut or chew their food.
- The most successful mammals in this environment are ruminants-hoofed species such as buffaloes and antelopes, which have a highly specialized digestive system that has evolved to break down cellulose, a tough substance that forms the walls of plant cells.
- Placental mammals are one of three major groups of living mammals.
- Mammals themselves are part of a larger tetrapod group called the Synapsida.
- Mammal is an animal that feeds its young on the mother's milk.
- Mammals are important not only to people but also to the whole system of life on the earth.
- Mammals that eat flesh, which is easy to digest, have a fairly simple stomach and short intestines.
- Phylogenetically, the Mammalia are defined as the last common ancestor of monotremes (e.g., echidnas) and therian mammals (e.g., hedgehogs), and all of this last common ancestor's descendants.
- Mammals have integumentary systems made up of three layers: the outermost epidermis, the dermis, and the hypodermis.
- No other animal has hair in the same form as mammals, and all mammals have some hair at least at the beginning of their lives - baby whales and dolphins are born with a moustache.