Mammal

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Mammals Fossil range: Late Triassic–Recent
Raccoon (Procyon lotor )
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Subphylum: Vertebrata (unranked) Amniota Class: Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758
Subclasses & Infraclasses
Subclass †Allotheria Subclass Prototheria Subclass Theria Infraclass †Trituberculata Infraclass Metatheria Infraclass Eutheria

Mammals are a group of vertebrate animals. They form the class Mammalia.

A mammal is any animal that produces and feeds its young with milk and is warm-blooded; the heat they need to live is made inside their body. The milk is made by glands in the skin or the mammary glands.

Almost all mammals give birth to living young. There are only five mammals that lay eggs, called Monotremes, for example the platypus. Other mammals can be divided into the Marsupials and the Eutheria, the placental mammals. Marsupials are mammals with pouches to carry young in, like the kangaroo. All other mammals are Eutheria.

Most mammals have four limbs and a coat of hair, wool or fur.

[change] Taxonomy

Mammals can be divided in a number of groups:

• Monotremes (monotremata)
• Marsupials (marsupialia)
• Eutheria
  • Superorder Xenarthra
    • Order Pilosa
    • Order Cingulata
  • Superorder Afrotheria
    • Order Proboscidea
  • Superorder Laurasiatheria
    • Order Insectivora
    • Order Chiroptera
    • Order Carnivora
    • Order Perissodactyla
    • Order Artiodactyla
    • Order Cetacea
  • Superorder Euarchontoglires
    • Order Rodentia
    • Order Lagomorpha
    • Order Primates

[change] Images

Polar bear

Bat

Camel

Manatee

[change] Other pages

• Mammalia (taxonomy)

Vertebrates
Amphibian • Bird • Fish • Mammal • Reptile