I looked at many sources to create this page, but my main source was Walker's Mammals of the World, both the 5th ed. (1991) and the 6th ed. (1999).

	Described living species				Stories
	Class Mammalia. Mammals. Mammals may be defined as vertebrates that possess hair and milk-producing mammary glands for feeding young. They also possess a four-chambered heart, a large cerebral cortex, three distinctive bones in the inner ear, and various tooth and skull distinctions.			4,440
		Subclass Prototheria. Monotremes. Primitive mammals that lay eggs, and have only a single opening for excretion, urination, and reproduction. The only living examples are the duck-billed platypus and echidnas (or spiny anteaters) both of which live entirely in Australia and Tasmania.		3	Platypus
		Subclass Metatheria. Marsupials. Mammals that lack a well-developed placenta; that give birth to very small, embryo-like young; and that usually carry their young in a marsupial pouch on the mother's belly. In North and South America, examples include the many kinds of opossums; in Australia and the nearby islands, examples include such enthusiastic jumpers as kangaroos, wallabies, and wallaroos (euros); tree-dwellers such as koalas and possums; carnivores such as native cats and the Tasmanian devil; herbivores such as bandicoots and marsupial mice; burrowers such as wombats and the marsupial mole; and insect-eaters such as the numbat.		280	Kangaroo
		Subclass Eutheria. Placental mammals. Mammals in which the females have a true placenta for efficiently nourishing their young, so that the young are well-developed prior to birth. This includes most living mammals.		4,157
			Order Insectivora. Insectivores. Small mammals that are mostly nocturnal, eat primarily insects, and inhabit all the continents except for Australia and Antarctica. Insectivores are of interest because they resemble-in both appearance and lifestyle-the very earliest mammals ever, the ones that emerged in the Mesozoic Era some 200 million years ago. Examples include shrews, moles, hedgehogs, tenrecs, golden moles, and others.	390
			Order Macroscelidea. Elephant shrews. Long-nosed, shrewlike mammals of African grasslands.	15
			Order Scandentia. Tree shrews. Shrew- or squirrel-like mammals of East Asian forests.	16
			Order Dermoptera. Colugos (flying lemurs). Mammals with an extremely large gliding membrane, inhabiting southeast Asian rainforests.	2
			Order Chiroptera. Bats. Bats are unique in being the only mammals that can fly, and have been enormously successful, representing almost one-fourth of all mammal species. Their wingspan varies from a bumblebee-like 5 cm (2 in.) (Kitti's hog-nosed bat) to a hawk-like 1.7 m (51/2 ft.) (flying foxes); their weight varies from a feather-like 2 g to a fairly hefty 1.5 kg (31/2 lbs.). They inhabit every continent except Antarctica; they eat everything from insects to fruit, nectar to blood, fish to frogs, birds to mammals.	986	Vampire bat
			Order Primates. Primates. Primates are mammals that are roughly monkey-shaped, originally tree-dwelling, and endowed with flexible, five-digit hands and feet. They include a great variety of mammals, the most numerous of which are the monkeys, common rainforest-swellers of South America, Africa, and southeast Asia; lemurs and marmosets; the so-called "lesser apes," gibbons; and the "great apes," gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, and human beings.	233	Human being
			Order Xenarthra (Edentata). Sloths, anteaters, and armadillos. Xenarthrans represent an odd collection of North and South American mammals, with a reduced or entirely absent set of teeth.	30	Sloth
			Order Pholidota. Pangolins (scaly anteaters). Ant- and termite-eating mammals of Asia and Africa, covered with armor-like scales.	7
			Order Lagomorpha. Rabbits, hares, and pikas. Small to mid-sized herbivorous mammals with a short tail, large ears, and two sets of incisors, inhabiting every continent except Australia and Antarctica.	69
			Order Rodentia. Rodents. Rodents are herbivorous mammals with distinctive ever-growing incisors for gnawing on vegetation. They range in size from 3 g (African pygmy mouse) to 70 kg (150 lbs.) (capybara); they live on every continent except Antarctica, and they boast nearly 2,000 species, almost half the world's mammals. Examples include about 1,000 species of mice and rats; numerous forest-dwelling squirrels and porcupines; stream-dwelling beavers and muskrats; grassland-dwelling gophers and prairie dogs; Arctic-dwelling voles and lemmings; desert-dwelling hamsters and mole-rats; tropics-dwelling capybara and guinea pigs; and many more.	1,814	Mouse
			Order Cetacea. Whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Cetaceans include most of the purely aquatic mammals. Most live in the ocean, though a few live in fresh water. Though fishlike in form, they are mammals, and are evolved from land-going ancestors. They include some of the world's most intelligent and communicative creatures, as well as the largest animal ever known to have existed: the blue whale, weighing in at a colossal 200 tons.	79	Dolphin or whale
			Order Carnivora. Carnivores. Order Carnivora doesn't include all carnivorous mammals, but it does include a certain set with particular tooth, claw, and skull characteristics suited for predation. Most are carnivorous, but many are omnivorous, and one (the giant panda) is entirely herbivorous. They live on all the continents except Australia and Antarctica; they range in size from 40 g (11/2 oz.) (least weasel) to over 750 kg (1,650 lbs.) (grizzly bear). Examples include the dog family (dogs, wolves, coyotes, foxes, and jackals); the cat family (cats, lynxes, cougars, leopards, jaguars, tigers, and lions); bears; and many others, including raccoons, weasels, wolverines, badgers, otters, mongooses, and hyenas.	240
			Order Pinnipedia. Seals, sea lions, and walrus. Amphibious mammals that hunt in the ocean, yet spend their remaining time on land or ice. They range in size from a hefty 45 kg (110 lbs.; many smaller species of seal) to a positively whopping 3,500 kg (8,000 lbs.) (southern elephant seal).	34
			Order Tubulidentata. The aardvark, an insect-eating mammal of central and southern Africa.	1
			Order Proboscidea. Elephants. Elephants, with their characteristic trunk-like noses, are the largest living land animals, weighing in at up to a crushing 6,000 kg. (13,000 lbs.)-six tons. Elephants are herbivores, and are able to digest almost any plant material, from leaves to tree bark. There are two species, the African elephant and the Asian or Indian elephant.	2
			Order Hyracoidea. Hyraxes. Small, herbivorous, rodentlike mammals that live in Africa and the Middle East.	7	Hyrax
			Order Sirenia. Manatees, dugongs, and sea cows. Large, aquatic mammals with a characteristic odd-looking snout.	4
			Order Perissodactyla. Odd-toed "ungulates" ("hoofed mammals"). Mammals with hooves formed from the middle digit of each limb, a useful adaptation for swift running. Examples include horses, zebras, and asses; tapirs; and rhinoceroses.	17
			Order Artiodactyla. Even-toed "ungulates" ("hoofed mammals"). Mammals that, like the perissodactyls, have hooves for swift running—but two-part hooves, formed from the third and fourth digits. Examples include piglike familites such as pigs and peccaries; exotic beasts of burden such as camels and llamas; African giants such as hippopotamuses and giraffes; deer and their relatives, such as moose (called elk in Europe) and caribou (reindeer in Europe); and cattle and their relatives, such as antelope, bison, buffalo, goats, and sheep.	211	Yak

Home - The Science Station - The Stories - Art, Religion, and Everything Else
Animal Classification - Invertebrata - Pisces - Amphibia - Reptilia - Aves - Mammalia