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/məˈmeɪli.ə/
(from latin mamma –> “breast”)
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(“mammals” are any vertebrates within the class mammalia, a clade of ‘endothermic amniotes’ distinguished from ‘reptiles’ (including ‘birds’) by the possession of a ‘neocortex’ (a region of the brain), hair, 3 middle ear bones, and “mammary glands”)
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(‘females’ of all mammal species nurse their young with milk, secreted from the ‘mammary glands’)
(‘mammals’ include the biggest animals on the planet, the ‘great whales’)
(the basic body type is a terrestrial quadruped, but some mammals are adapted for life at sea, in the air, in trees, underground or on two legs)
(the largest group of mammals, the ‘placentals’, have a ‘placenta’, which enables the feeding of the ‘fetus’ during ‘gestation’)
(‘mammals’ range in size from the 30–40 mm (1.2–1.6 in) ‘bumblebee bat’ to the 30-meter (98 ft) ‘blue whale’)
(with the exception of the 5 species of ‘monotreme’ (‘egg-laying mammals’), all modern ‘mammals’ give birth to ‘live young’)
(most ‘mammals’, including the 6 most species-rich orders, belong to the ‘placental group’)
(the largest orders are the ‘rodents’, ‘bats’, and ‘Soricomorpha’ (‘shrews’ and ‘allies’))
(the next 3 biggest orders, depending on the biological classification scheme used, are the ‘Primates’ (‘apes’ and ‘monkeys’), the ‘Cetartiodactyla’ (‘whales’ and ‘even-toed ungulates’), and the ‘Carnivora’ (‘cats’, ‘dogs’, ‘seals’, and ‘allies’))
(living mammals are divided into the ‘Yinotheria’ (‘platypus’ and ‘echidnas’) and ‘Theriiformes’ (all other ‘mammals’))
(there are around 5450 species of mammal, depending on which authority is cited)
(in some classifications, ‘extant mammals’ are divided into two subclasses: the ‘Prototheria’, that is, the order ‘Monotremata’; and the ‘Theria’, or the infraclasses ‘Metatheria’ and ‘Eutheria’)
(the ‘marsupials’ constitute the crown group of the ‘Metatheria’, and include all living ‘metatherians’ as well as many extinct ones; the ‘placentals’ are the crown group of the ‘Eutheria’)
(while mammal classification at the family level has been relatively stable, several contending classifications regarding the higher levels—’subclass’, ‘infraclass’, and ‘order’, especially of the ‘marsupials’—appear in contemporaneous literature)
(much of the changes reflect the advances of ‘cladistic analysis’ and ‘molecular genetics’)
(findings from ‘molecular genetics’, for example, have prompted adopting new groups, such as the ‘Afrotheria’, and abandoning traditional groups, such as the ‘Insectivora’)
(the mammals represent the only living ‘Synapsida’, which together with the ‘Sauropsida’ form the ‘Amniota’ clade)
(the early ‘synapsid’ mammalian ancestors were ‘sphenacodont pelycosaurs’, a group that produced the non-mammalian “dimetrodon”)
(at the end of the “carboniferous period”, this group diverged from the ‘sauropsid’ line that led to today’s ‘reptiles’ and ‘birds’)
(the line following the stem group ‘Sphenacodontia’ split-off several diverse groups of non-mammalian ‘synapsids’—sometimes referred to as ‘mammal-like reptiles’—before giving rise to the ‘proto-mammals’ (‘Therapsida’) in the early ‘Mesozoic’ era)
(the modern mammalian orders arose in the ‘Paleogene’ and ‘Neogene’ periods of the ‘Cenozoic’ era, after the extinction of ‘non-avian dinosaurs’, and have been among the dominant terrestrial animal groups from 66 million years ago to ‘the present’)
(some mammals are intelligent, with some possessing large brains, self-awareness and tool use)
(‘mammals’ can communicate and vocalize in several different ways, including the production of ‘ultrasound’, ‘scent-marking’, ‘alarm signals’, ‘singing’, and ‘echolocation’)
(‘mammals’ can organize themselves into ‘fission-fusion societies’, ‘harems’, and ‘hierarchies’, but can also be ‘solitary’ and ‘territorial’)
(most mammals are ‘polygynous’, but some can be ‘monogamous’ or ‘polyandrous’)
(in human culture, domesticated mammals played a major role in the ‘Neolithic revolution’, causing ‘farming’ to replace ‘hunting and gathering’, and leading to a major restructuring of human societies with the first ‘civilizations’)
(they provided, and continue to provide, power for transport and agriculture, as well as various commodities such as ‘meat’, ‘dairy products’, ‘wool’, and ‘leather’)
(‘mammals’ are hunted or raced for sport, and are used as model organisms in ‘science’)
(‘mammals’ have been depicted in art since ‘palaeolithic’ times, and appear in ‘literature’ / ‘film’ / ‘mythology’ / ‘religion’)
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(de-faunation of ‘mammals’ is primarily driven by ‘anthropogenic’ factors – such as ‘poaching’ + ‘habitat destruction’, though there are efforts to combat this)
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*🌈✨ *TABLE OF CONTENTS* ✨🌷*
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🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥*we won the war* 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥