Mammals

The Fascinating Wolrd of  Mammals

Mammals are animals that have hair, are warm-blooded, and nourish their young with milk. Mammals have to eat a lot to maintain their high body temperature. As with most animal groups, there are more herbivores (plant-eaters) than there are carnivores (meat-eaters).

Mammal Facts

• Fastest mammal (also the fastest land animal): the cheetah (60-70 mph = 97-110 kph)
• Slowest mammal – the sloth (less than 1 mph, or 2 kph)
• Biggest mammal, biggest animal that ever lived on Earth – the blue whale
• Biggest land mammal- the African Elephant
• Tallest mammal – the giraffe
• Smallest mammals – the pygmy shrew (weighing 1.2-2.7 gm) and the bumblebee bat (weighing about 2 gm)
• Loudest mammal – the Blue Whale. The second loudest is the Howler Monkey.
• Smallest newborns – marsupials (pouched mammals, like the kangaroo)
• Smelliest mammal – the striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis)
• The only venomous mammals – duckbilled platypus (males only), several species of shrews, and the Solenodon
• Fat – The blue whale has the thickest layer of blubber, but ringed seal pups have the greatest percentage of fat (about 50 %).

There are 3 types of mammals:

1. Monotremes or Egg Laying Mammals
There are only five living monotreme species: the duck-billed platypus and four species of echidna (also known as spiny anteaters). All of them are found only in Australia and New Guinea.

2. Marsupilas or Pouched Mammals

Marsupilas, like the kangaroo and wallaby, give live birth, but they do not have long gestation times like placental mammals. Instead, they give birth very early and the young animal, essentially a helpless embryo, climbs from the mother’s birth canal to the nipples it grabs on with its mouth and continues to develop, often for weeks or months depending on the species. Like other mammals, the marsupials are covered with hair.

3. Placental mammals
A rather diverse group, with nearly 4000 described species, mostly  rodents and bats. The placental mammals include such diverse forms as humans, whales, elephants, shrews, and armadillos. They are also some of the most familiar organisms to us, including pets such as dogs and cats, as well as many farm and work animals, such as sheep, cattle, and horses. Placental mammals all bear live young, which are nourished before birth in the mother’s womb/uterus through a specialized embryonic organ attached to the uterus wall, the placenta.