Mammals
There are over 4000 animals which are categorised as mammals. There are three subclasses of mammals. These are marsupials, monotremes and placental mammals.
 Hispaniola solenodon belgianchocolate Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license  |
 Long-beaked Echidna GNU Free Documentation License version 1.2 |
Mammals are animals which have certain characteristics; which includes: glands that produce milk, hair, three bones in the middle ear, and a neocortex layer in the brain.
The neocortex provides advance brain functions which, by definition, animals have to have to be mammals:
- sensory perception
- motor commands
- spatial reasoning
- conscious thought
- language
Most marsupials have their young born very immature and are kept in a pouch by the mother, where the young are fed and develop.
monotremes are egg laying mammals. Examples include the duck-billed duck-billed platypus and the spiny anteater.
placental mammals are those animals whose young remain in the womb until they are much more developed. They are nourished and grow from the nutrients received from the placenta. There are many thousands of such mammals.
 duck-billed platypus Maksim GNU Free Documentation License version 1.2 |
 suffolk stoats BozMo GNU Free Documentation License version 1.2 |
What is a mammal?
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