 Endothermic


Warm-blooded
Permits high level of activity at night and yearround (regardless of outside temperature)
 Females

vertebrate with hair
have mammary glands
Function: make/secrete milk for young
 About
5000 species
 Ex: cats, dogs, humans, dolphins,
elephants, kangaroo, whale, bat, rabbit,
beaver, wolf, seal, mouse, platypus,
chimpanzee, tiger
 High
degree of parental care
 Body covered by hair

In some, hair is reduced in size – like humans
 All
have an integument (external
covering)

Contains: sweat, scent, sebaceous and
mammary glands
 Breathe
using lungs
 Excrete using kidneys
 Separate sexes
 Young nourished by milk (made by the
mammary glands)
 Many have territories
These are areas from which individuals of the
same species will reside
 Will often resort to violence to protect these
territories

 Rodents
Ex: mice, squirrels, rats, woodchucks
 Have two razor sharp incisors for gnawing

 Lagomorpha
Ex: rabbits, hares, pikas
 All are herbivores

 Hominids

Ex: humans, gorilla, orangutan, chimps
 Insectivora
Ex: moles, shrews
 Diet consists of insects

 Carnivora
 Ex:
weasels, seals, walruses, dogs,
wolves, cats, bears
 Highly predatory animals,
 Contain teeth for tearing flesh
 Proboscidea
 Ex:
elephants
 Largest of living land animals
 Perissodactyla
 Ex:
horses, donkeys, zebras, rhinos
 Often referred to as ungulates or the
hoofed animals
 Cetacea
 Ex:
dolphins, whales, porpoises
 Limbs are modified into flippers

Live in aquatic environments only
 Skeleton
 Skeletal/bone
make-up allows for:
High-speed running
 Swimming
 climbing trees
 Movement of digits (fingers/toes) to help
grasp objects

 Joints
allow for a greater range of
motion
 Hair:
 Has
become a modified sense “organ”
 Purpose of hair:
 Spines of porcupines—protection
 Hair of most animals—insulation
 Vibrissae (whiskers)—provide tactile
sense

Slightest movement indicates minimal
space available (cat/dog)
 Moveable
eyelids
 Fleshy external ears
 Well-developed brain
 The
largest brain in animal kingdom
 Cerebrum—processes info for thinking and
learning
 High evolved brain allows for highly
developed memory and capacity to learn
topics/developmental milestones quicker
 Highly
elaborate sensory organs
 Provide
mammals with a high level of
environmental awareness and
responsiveness
 Senses: taste, smell, hearing, sight
 Most have great eyesight
 Many can’t see color
 Many will use echolocation to communicate
and/or navigate

Ex: Bats, dolphins
 Teeth
 Mammalian
teeth are both more
complicated and more efficient than in
other vertebrates
 Mammals are heterodonts (some of our
teeth are different)
 Specialized for variety of functions:

Includes: grind, stab, scissor, dig, chisel, sieve
and lift (elephants tusks)
 Teeth,

cont.
Teeth in mammals come in four different
sorts:
Incisors, Canines, Premolars and Molars.
 Not all mammals have all

Use this variety to eat a wide variety of food
 Most placental mammals have between 20
and 40 teeth, while most marsupials have 30
to 50.
 As a general rule animals that feed on insects
have more teeth than either herbivores or
the larger carnivores.

 Contain
a secondary palate
 Separates
air passageway from the food
passageway
 Allows mammals to hold (and partially
break down food) in mouths without
interrupting breathing
 Have


Insectivores are often small
Herbivores have two groups



many feeding adaptations
Groups: browsers and grazers
Have large molars adapted for grinding
Carnivores have large canines

Adapted for ripping/tearing meat
 Other

adaptations:
Ruminants (cattle, bison, goats) have a fourchambered stomach
 Energy
and Wastes
 Require
much energy to keep a constant
body temp
 Produce a variety of waste products (uric
acid, urine, feces, etc)
 Digestive
tract
 If
mammals eats only plants, longer
digestive tract

 If
Why? takes longer to digest plants/cellulose
eat only meat, shorter digestive tract
 Require
a large amount of oxygen
for respiration
 2 organ adaptations for this:
 Diaphragm:

Muscle that contracts and therefore, allows
for more rapid/controlled breathing
 Four-chambered

heart:
Separates blood into oxygen-rich/oxygenpoor
 All
have internal fertilization
 All have mammary glands
 3 groups of Mammal life cycles:
1. Placental:
2. Marsupials:
3. Monotremes:
 Placental:
Develop inside mother’s body
 95% of mammals are this
 Placenta—organ which allows for
nutrients, oxygen, carbon dioxide and
wastes to be exchanged

 Placental,
cont.:
Gestation period—time that embryo
stays in the mother’s body
 Humans: 9 months, Elephants: 27
months, Mice: 21 days
 Mammary gland—young continue to
feed by suckling
 Ex: humans, dolphin, elephant, most
mammals

 Marsupials:



Give birth to small, immature young that
develop in a mother’s external sac (kangaroo)
Mothers can move around and look for food
while baby develops in the pouch
Ex: kangaroo, koala, panda
 Monotremes:



Mammals that give birth by laying eggs
Incubate using her heat
Ex: platypus