Domain Eucarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata
Class Mammalia
Mammals evolved on land during the late Triassic period, but were not nearly as successful as the dinosaurs which evolved at the same time.
During the Cenozoic Era, mammals radiated into so many ecological niches that the Era is often called the "Age of Mammals".
Defining mammalian characteristics include:
- Mammary glands from which females feed their newborn offspring
- Three bones in the middle ear
- Molar and premolar "cheek teeth" (where they have not evolved away)
- Bodies covered in hair
- Paleoryctoidae
Subclass Prototheria:
- Infraclass Ornithodelphia:
- Infraclass Allotheria:
Subclass Theria:
Infraclass Metatheria (marsupials):
- Order Didelphimorphia (opossums) (1, ,60)(Americas)
- Order Paucituberculata (1, 2, 5) (South America)
- Order Microbiotheria (1, 1, 1) (monito del monte)(South
America)
- Order Dasyuromorphia aka Marsupicarnivora (3, 17 ,63) (numbat, thylacine) (Australia & Tasmania)
- Order Peramelemorphia aka Peramelina (2, 8, 21) (bandicoot,
bilbie)(Australia)
- Order Notoryctemorphia (1, 1, 2) (marsupial mole)(Australia)
- Order Diprotodontia (kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, etc.) (10, 39,
117) (Australia and New Guinea)
Infraclass Eutheria:
- Order Proteutheria (Cretaceous - Oligocene, EXTINCT)
- Order Pantodonta (Paleocene - Ologicene, EXTINCT)
- Order Dinocerata (Paleocene - Eocene, EXTINCT)
- Order Tillodontia (Paleocene- Eocene, EXTINCT)
- Order Taeniodonta (Paleocene - Eocene, EXTINCT)
- Order Hyaenodonta aka Creodonta (Cretaceous - Oligocene, EXTINCT)
- Order Xenungulata (Paleocene, EXTINCT)
- Order Pyrotheria (Eocene - Oligocene, EXTINCT)
- Order Desmostylia (Miocene - Pliocene, EXTINCT)
- Order Notungulata (Paleocene - Pleistocene, EXTINCT)
- Order Astrapotheria (Paleocene - Miocene, EXTINCT)
- Order Liptopterna (Paleocene - Pleistocene, EXTINCT)
- Order Embrithopoda (Oligocene, EXTINCT)
- Order Condylarthra (Cretaceous - Oligocene, EXTINCT)
- Order Insectivora (hedgehogs, moles, shrews, tenrecs) (6, 65, 403)
- Order Scandentia (tree shrews) (1, 5, 19)
- Order Macroscelidea (elephant shrews]) (1, 4, 19)
- Order Dermoptera (colugo aka flying lemur) (1, 1, 2)
- Order Pholidota (pangolin) (1, 1, 7)
- Order Chiroptera (bats) (17,,925)
- Order Xenarthra aka Edentata (sloths, anteaters, armadilloes)
- Order Lagomorpha (rabbits) (2, 13, 80)
- Order Tubulidentata (aardvark) (1, 1, 1) (Africa)
- Order Rodentia (rodents) (30, ,2000+) (includes Caviomorpha)
- Order Carnivora(carnivores) (11, 167, 250) (subsumes Pinnipedia)
- Order Proboscidea (elephants) (1, 2, 3) (Africa and South Asia)
- Order Hyracoidea (hyraxes) (1, 3, 6)
- Order Perissodactyla (horse, tapir, rhinoceros) (3, 5, 14)
- Order Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates: pig, deer, etc.)
- Order Sirenia (manatee, dugong) (2, 3, 4)
- Order Cetacea (dolphins and whales) (13, 40, 79), sometimes broken into
- Order Primates (lemurs, monkeys, apes, humans) (13, 65, 233)
Mammals are a class of bony fishes that have evolved to live on land, and whose scales have attenuated into long, thin projections called "hair". A cladistic lineage of the mammals looks something like this1:
Eukaryota - cells with nuclei
Ophisthokonta
Metazoa - animals
Bilateria - triploblast embryos, bodies with bilateral symmetry
Deuterostoma
Chordata - vertebrates
Craniata - vertebrates with skulls
Vertebrata - vertebrates with backbones (i.e. instead of a cartaliginous notochord
Gnathostomata - vertebrates with jaws
Teleostomi - mouth at end, three ear bones
Osteichthyes - bony fishes
Sarcopterygii - lobed fins
Tetrapoda - four limbs
Stegocephalia - digits
Amniota - young develop in amniotic egg
Synapsida - ear hole in skull
Anthracosauria
Eupleycosauria
Sphenacodontia
Sphenacodontoidea
Therapsida
Theriodontia
Cynodontia
Mammalia
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web - Mammalia
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/chordata/mammalia.html
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, MSW Scientific Names
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/cgi-bin/wdb/msw/names/query/1
The Ultimate Ungulate Page, your guide to the world's Hoofed Mammals]
http://www.ultimateungulate.com/index.html
Biognomen
http://members.aol.com/bafiler/index.html
1Tree of Life Web Project
http://tolweb.org/tree/
MAMMALS: A World Listing of Living and Extinct Species, Edited by John H. Burkitt, Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Nashville, Tennessee, Second Edition, 1995