Mammals, considered the most developed animals (including humans as a species), are so named because they have mammary glands that allow females to feed their young with their own milk.
Mammals have larger and more developed brains than other animals. Some of them are endowed with amazing abilities and a kind of intelligence, such as primates (chimpanzees) and cetaceans (dolphin). Most mammals have a body covered with fur. With the exception of humans, who walk on two legs, mammals, as a rule, move with the help of four limbs, which in different zoological species have different shape(hand, hoof, webbed foot, fin), but always with fingers (from one to five). And finally, almost everyone has teeth.
The class of currently existing mammals includes about 4,200 species, extremely diverse in appearance and behavior. Some animals are very tiny, others are real giants. Some thrive and spread everywhere, others are in danger of extinction. And although most of them are, so to speak, land creatures, there are also amphibians (beavers, otters, platypuses), and sea inhabitants (whales, dolphins), and some can even fly through the air, like birds ( the bats).
Mammals are divided into three large groups depending on how they produce offspring: cloacal (primal animals), marsupials and placentals. It is to the latter that man belongs. The most amazing animals are cloacals, or monotremes: they reproduce by laying large eggs, which they then incubate (oviparous reproduction). Egg-laying animals are very few in number. They are represented by only two families living in Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea: the echidna and the platypus.
In marsupials, the young are born underdeveloped and complete their development in the mother's abdominal brood pouch. They are divided into two groups: one lives in Australia (1 kangaroo), and the other in South America(opossum). As for placental mammals, whose young are born fully developed, there are the most of them. There are several orders: carnivores, insectivores, rodents, ungulates, edentates, cetaceans, primates.
Interesting similarities
Mammals living on different continents, sometimes strikingly similar. Large South American rodents (capybara, agouti, mara, paca) resemble the dwarf hippopotamus or water deer - inhabitants of Africa. The American feline, the jaguarundi, is very similar to the giant civet from Madagascar. It's about about the so-called convergence phenomenon: animals belonging to different groups, but living in similar conditions, acquire a certain similarity.
Pangolin - length. from 80 cm to 1.5 m
Flying monkey - length. 40 cm
Seal - length. from 1.5 to 4 m
Platypus - length. 40 cm, tail - 12 cm
Dolphin - length. from 2 to 4 m
Gorilla - standing height 1.8 m
Elephant - length. from 2 to 4 m
Lemur - length. 50 cm, tail 50 cm
Chimpanzee - standing height 1.4 m
Kangaroo - length. up to 1.5 m, tail up to 1 m
Pygmy pipistrelle - length. 4.5 cm, tail 3 cm, r.k. 20 cm
Bison - length. 2.6 m, tail 70 cm, h. 1.2 m
Boar - length. from 1.2 to 1.6 m, c. 60 cm to 1 m
Fox - length 70 cm, tail 45 cm
Hedgehog - length. 25 cm
Giraffe - general c. - 5.5 m, tail 80 cm
Camel - general c. 2 m
Leo - long 1.7 m, tail 80 cm
Behemoth - length. 4m, tail 40 cm, h. 1.5 m
I must have skipped biology class right when my classmates were studying mammals. Because for a long time I couldn’t clearly answer even to myself who belonged to this class. I felt ashamed, and I started catching up on the lost program.
Who are mammals
Mammals are those living organisms that feed their offspring with their milk. The class of mammals is incredibly huge and contains more than 5,000 species. Mammals can live:
- on the land;
- in water;
- underground;
- in the air.
Mammals can be domestic or wild. They can also adapt to any climatic conditions. To do this, nature, to help, gave them the opportunity to maintain body temperature by sweating or evaporation through the mucous membranes (they have seen how dogs breathe through their mouths when it is hot). And in the cold season they are protected by wool, fur or hair. For comparison, reptiles and fish use scales for these purposes, and birds use feathers.
For clarity, I will give an example of those animals that are mammals: dogs, cats, kangaroos, hedgehogs, elephants, bats, whales, giraffes, rodents, hares, monkeys, horses, lions, wolves.
In 1996, the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, was born. She lived only 7 years.
By the way, people also belong to the class of mammals.
Distinctive feature of mammals
All animals belonging to the class of mammals have developed all senses: vision, smell, hearing, touch, taste. Mammals also have a good memory, are capable of analyzing their actions, can distinguish colors and always recognize themselves in the mirror.
One more interesting feature This group is the presence of claws. Please note that the hooves of horses and cows are also claws. Only modified ones. Claws help animals get food by climbing trees and rocks, and defend themselves from enemies (by striking with a hoof or a sharp nail).
And for such bulky animals as the elephant, rhinoceros and hippopotamus, the horny shoe (hoof-claw) serves as a kind of “hook” when climbing a mountain path.
Scientific definition. Mammals- these are representatives of a monophyletic taxon of endothermic amniotes, which differ from reptiles in the presence of hair, three middle auditory ossicles, a mammary gland and a neocortex. The mammalian brain regulates body temperature and the cardiovascular system, including the four-chambered heart.
general information
Mammals are not the most numerous group, but they are surprisingly easy to adapt to environmental conditions. They live in a variety of natural environments. The brain volume of mammals is larger than that of representatives of other classes of animals. The largest land and sea animals are mammals - elephants on land and whales in the ocean.
There are about 4,500 species of mammals, including giant whales, tiny shrews, and bats. The largest mammal in the world is, growing up to 30 meters in length and weighing up to 200 tons. The largest ungulates are the giraffe (height 5.5 meters, weight 1.5 tons) and the white rhinoceros (height 1.8 meters, weight more than two tons). The smartest animals are (starting with the smartest mammal): chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, baboon and dolphin.
What mammals lay eggs
Platypuses And echidnas They are the only mammals that lay eggs. These amazing animals live only in Australia, more precisely in its eastern part. Platypuses live in rivers and have webbed feet and a flat, paddle-like tail adapted for swimming. The female platypus lays one or two eggs in a burrow, and feeds the hatched offspring with milk. Female echidnas bury their eggs in a hole, but carry their young in a pouch - where they grow and feed, licking milk from her fur.
Are marsupials the only animals that live in Australia?
No, some species live in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in Pacific Ocean, and two species, the American opossum and the Chilean opossum, live in North and South America, respectively. Mammals that have a pouch for carrying their young are called marsupials. This order includes kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, opossums, wombats, and bandicoots.
How are mammals born?
Placental mammals (most large group mammals) give birth to live young. Inside the female's body, the developing embryo is nourished through a special organ called the placenta. Most mammalian babies go through all stages of development (except marsupials) by the time they are born, although they still require parental care after birth.
The largest group of mammals
Surprisingly, the largest group of mammals is bats. These are the only mammals that can fly and are represented by more than 970 species. Most bats are similar in size to the common mouse. The largest among bats are fruit bats And flying foxes. Many bats are nocturnal hunters of insects, rodents and frogs. To navigate well in space at night, bats use echolocation. They produce high-frequency squeaks that echo off nearby objects.
What animals are called carnivores?
For most animals, the most important activity is searching for food. Unlike plants, which have enough sunlight In order to produce their own food, animals have to constantly look for food. Otherwise they simply will not survive. Different animals need different kinds food. Herbivores eat plants carnivores- other animals, and omnivores- both plants and animal meat.
Seals, dolphins and whales are marine mammals whose ancestors lived on land millions of years ago. Their apron limbs turned into pectoral fins, and the rear ones - in a tail with two horizontal blades. Seals and sea lions can move on land; whales and dolphins are only sea animals.
Leopards usually hunt at night. They drag their prey up a tree - away from other animals that feed on carrion, such as hyenas.
A baby kangaroo grows inside its mother's pouch. She protects him from danger until the bag becomes too small for the cub.
Many bats have large ears, which help them catch echoes. The bat pinpoints the location of its prey, such as a moth. Bats roost for the night, hanging upside down and holding onto support with tenacious claws on their paws.
Dolphins and bears, moles and bats, elephants and humans - all these animals belong to the class of mammals. Mammals are a class of vertebrates characterized by some unique features, by which they can be distinguished from other animals. The main distinguishing features are viviparity (except for the oviparous subclass, to which the platypus belongs) and feeding the offspring with milk.
There are other characteristic signs.
Mammals have a diaphragm, a four-chambered heart, and have the property of being warm-blooded - they are able to regulate their body temperature. Mammalian metabolism controls heat production, and evaporation through sweat glands cools the body. This allows mammals to maintain a constant body temperature, regardless of the external temperature.
The middle ear also has a special structure, in which three bones are distinguished- incus, malleus and stirrup, they are involved in converting sound waves into nerve impulses. One more characteristic feature mammals is that their skull base is connected in a special way to the cervical vertebrae, of which all mammals always have seven (both the giraffe and the small mouse).
The presence of hair that covers at least some part of the body at some stage of life is also a unique feature of mammals. Mammals feed their young with milk produced by the mammary glands. Mammary glands, like hair, are a feature uniquely characteristic only of mammals.
Mammals appeared more than two hundred million years ago during the Jurassic period. The first mammals were small creatures, similar to modern shrews, that hunted insects at night. For 130 million years, mammals remained small and survived in a world ruled by reptiles, most notably dinosaurs. But about 65 million years ago, a catastrophic climate change occurred - dinosaurs became extinct, along with almost two-thirds of all animals of that time. And mammals survived thanks to the ability to regulate temperature own body, and settled throughout the planet.
Today there are about 5,400 species of mammals in the world, which are extremely diverse in size, shape and adaptability to environment. They inhabit all continents and occupy the most diverse ecological niches: on land (meadows, swamps, forests) and in water (rivers, seas and oceans), in soil and air, in gorges and on mountain tops, in polar regions and deserts. Mammals range in size from a few centimeters (bumblebee bat) to several tens of meters (great blue whale).
The most famous orders of mammals- these are marsupials (kangaroos), insectivores (hedgehogs), chiropterans (bats), rodents (gophers), carnivores (wolves), pinnipeds (seals), cetaceans (dolphins), artiodactyls (hippos), odd-toed ungulates (rhinoceros), and finally, primates (humans).
It would seem that the question is not at all difficult and we all covered this topic at the beginning of studying biology in school. However, most adults cannot immediately answer this question. In this article we will look at both types in detail and compare them, so that after reading you will never be able to confuse how animals differ from mammals!
What do we know about animals?
First, let's try to define each of these concepts and then draw a parallel. So, animals are a classically distinguished fraction of living organisms, part of the biological kingdom. All animals, without exception, are studied by zoologists and divided into categories, types and subtypes. They are eukaryotes, which means that their cells have nuclei. They can move actively, are divided into wild and domestic, and much more. 
Modern classifications of the animal world
Modern zoologists put forward many theories on the classification and typification of animals. The most famous of them are divided into:
- Types.
- Classes.
- Squads.
- Families.
- Childbirth.
- Kinds.
Unfortunately, within the framework of this article we will not comprehensively cover this topic. After all, our goal is to find out what the difference is between animals and mammals, and not to delve into zoology. To understand the topic, we need to consider in detail only the classes of animals, which include mammals. That is, looking ahead, it becomes clear what the main difference between these two concepts is.
The difference between animals and mammals is that the second concept is narrower and is included in the first. But for complete understanding, let's deal with everything in order.
There are only eight units in the animal classes. This:
- Crustaceans.
- Arachnids.
- Insects.
- Birds.
- Reptiles.
- Amphibians.
- Fish.
What are mammals?
So we get to the second definition, what are mammals?
As we have already found out, mammals are a separate class of animals. All mammals, without exception, are vertebrates. Their main distinguishing feature (as you can already guess from the name) is that they feed their young with milk. As you might guess, not all animals can do this (for example, fish or insects, everyone knows, do not do this). Moreover, they are all quadrupeds. Knowing these basics, it is not difficult to learn to distinguish mammals from other animals. 
But as far as external data is concerned, mammals are a very diverse class. Representatives of the class of mammals are moles, hedgehogs, squirrels, beavers, mice, wolves, foxes, bears, seals, walruses, whales, dolphins, giraffes, elephants and all domestic animals (goats, cows). They are also divided into subclasses. Their features are hair, skin glands, constant temperature bodies, warm-bloodedness, viviparity, care of offspring, complexity of behavior. In general, they are all easily distinguished from other representatives of the fauna world.
Let's sum it up
Now that we have familiarized ourselves in detail with each of the terms presented and learned (or, rather, remembered) about each of them, it’s time to answer the basic questions of this article. How do animals differ from mammals?
- As it turns out, mammals are those who feed their young with milk. Other animals don't do this. If you ever forget about it, the name of this class will always tell you. In order to feed the baby, female mammals have mammary glands.
- They are viviparous - that is, before birth, the fetus develops inside the female (many animals, for example, lay eggs), this is another difference from other animals.
- Some individuals can fly. These are, for example, bats or flying dogs (this happens too!). While other animals, with the exception of the class of birds, crawl or swim.
- They take care of their offspring (unlike many other representatives of the animal world). After birth, cubs remain with their packs for a long time, and sometimes throughout their lives. They are taught to hunt, get food, and even play with them.
- All of them are four-legged (as opposed to reptiles, fish, birds and other animals).
Here are the main differences inherent in the class of mammals. In this article, we answered the question of how animals differ from mammals, identified them as a separate class and provided basic concepts on the topic. Now you can easily distinguish a mammal from another animal or explain to your child what is the difference between them.
