Category Animal World

               We know that a mammal is an animal that delivers its children and breast-feeds them. Do all mammals follow these rules? Are there mammals that lay eggs instead of delivering young ones?

                The platypus and echidna are special mammals because they lay eggs! These animals do not give birth to live babies as other mammals do. The platypus is found in burrows near streams in Australia. Its eggs are round and white with wrinkled shells. The mother platypus guards and keeps the eggs warm for 10 days, until they hatch. The babies drink the milk that oozes out of pores on her underside.

                Echidnas, on the other hand, carry their eggs in a pouch that forms on their belly. After mating, a female echidna digs a burrow, curls up her body, and lays one egg directly into her pouch. The egg hatches in about 10 days. Inside the pouch, the baby echidna drinks milk from its mother’s body. When its spines start to grow, the baby leaves the pouch. The female will feed her baby until it is about 6 months old.

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               Have you ever thought of the wonder of how a new life is brought forth in the form of a baby? We all have spent a considerable amount of time in our mother’s womb before seeing the light of this world. Most mammal babies live inside their mothers before they are born, just like us. When the baby is big enough, it comes out of its mother’s body. Baby mammals come out of their mother’s body in some odd ways too: some mammals lay eggs while others have a pouch in which they nurture the immature babies.

               Despite the diversity of the ways in which some baby mammals are born, they all drink milk that comes from their mothers’ bodies. Baby pigs, dolphins, bats and elephants all drink milk! Mother’s milk is essential for the survival of baby mammals. Due to this reason, mammal mothers have to take good care of their young. The length of time varies from a few weeks for mice to many years for humans!

              Mammal mothers nurse their babies, clean them and keep them warm. The mother is responsible for the protection of her baby, and she teaches it to look after itself. With the case of a few exceptions, male mammals do not care for their young. Some may hunt and help to guard the babies; however, the mother mostly takes on the responsibility of bringing up the babies. Therefore, it is no wonder that mammal babies are generally attached more to their mothers than to their fathers.

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               Physical prowess and the intelligence required to use it to one’s advantage for better adaptation practices are what an organism needs for dominance in nature. Mammals were able to become lords of the earth primarily because of the high level of development of their brains. This gave them the capacity to absorb information, to learn and to remember, making them superior to all other animals.

               Mammals also became dominant because of the way their body evolved and adapted. Some developed hooves and became grazers on the grasslands of the world. Others developed hunting skills and became meat eaters. Some mammals developed wings and took to the air while others adapted to life at sea. Land dwellers developed four limbs, which they used for moving about most efficiently. Many mammals developed sharp curved claws and tails that were adapted for living in trees. Others developed thin membranes of fur-covered skin that stretched between their legs, which allowed them to glide.

               Do you know the only mammals that can fly? They are bats. Most mammals can swim while some have special adaptations that make them expert swimmers. Seals, sea lions and walruses spend most of their time in water, while sea cows and whales live in the water from birth to death.

               The hair and teeth of mammals are adapted to suit a wide variety of habitats and different types of food. Mammals have also learnt to protect themselves and many have deadly weapons to attack their enemies.

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            Sometimes, myths and stories are more believable than truth, because it is difficult to digest when one says that we humans have evolved from less complex animals. In fact, science says that the present day mammals come from giant reptiles that ruled the world thousands of years ago.

             About 200,000,000 years ago, reptiles ruled the earth. The age of the reptiles is known as the Mesozoic Era, Remember, dinosaurs were present in that era. Gradually one set of reptiles began to change. They started to grow coats of hair and became warm blooded. Instead of laying eggs like other reptiles, they kept the eggs inside their body. The babies grew inside the mother’s body until they were born as live young ones. In short, these reptiles had evolved into mammals.

                 The first mammals were very tiny and timid creatures. These early mammals were small, nocturnal, hairy, and warm-blooded and ate mainly insects. Later as conditions on Earth changed and dinosaurs disappeared from the face of the earth, mammals began to grow bigger. They also started to spread out until they took over the world!

 

          How many kinds of mammals can you think of? Even if we start counting the mammals that we encounter every day, the number would be very high. There are about 5,000 species of living mammals.

          Mammals are divided into three sub-classes, and about 26 orders. They display a remarkable array of adaptation abilities. Their intelligence enables them to inhabit a wide range of habitats. They vary in size from the minute bumblebee bat, which measures a mere three centimetres in length, to the magnificent blue whale, which can measure 33 metres from head to tail. The main orders of living mammals are given in the box here.

MONOTREMATA: Mammals that lay eggs. Example: Platypus

MARSUPIALIA: Their young are very immature at birth; females usually have pouches. Example: Kangaroo                        

INSECTIVORA: Small insect-eating mammals. Example: Mole.                                                

DERMOPETRA: Gliding mammals. Example: Flying lemur

CHIROPETRA: Mammals with wings. Example: Bat                                                          

PRIMATES: Mammals with highly developed nervous systems; most have opposable thumbs. Example: Monkey                                                          

EDENTATA: Mammals that usually have simple, peg-like teeth. Example: Anteater                              

PHOLIDOTA: Mammals with coverings of overlapping scales. Example: Pangolin                                     

LAGOMORPHA: Small-to medium-size mammals with clawed toes; tails are either stubby or lacking. Example: Rabbit

RODENTIA: Gnawing mammals. Example: Rat

CETACEA: Water-dwelling mammals with fish like forms. Example: Whale

CARNIVORE: Flesh-eating mammals. Example: Dog

TUBULIDENTATA: Long-snouted, long-clawed, insect-eating mammals. Example: Aardvark

PROBOSCIDEA: Huge mammals with trunks. Example: Elephant

HYRACOIDEA: Small, rodent like mammals with hooves. Example: Hyrax or rock rabbit

SIRENIA: Water-dwelling mammals with flippers, paddle-shaped tails, and no hind legs. Example: Manatee

PERISSODACTYLA: Hoofed mammals with odd numbers of toes on each hind foot. Example: Horse

ARTIODACTYLA: Hoofed mammals with even numbers of toes on each foot. Example: Cow

 

               How did Man become the most prominent animal in Nature? It is partly due to Man’s intelligence and ability to adapt and adjust. Mammals, in general, are more intelligent and creative than others and have the ability to adapt to adverse environments.

               For these reasons, mammals are considered the most advanced and probably the most popular class of all the classes of animal life. They are the only animals that possess true hair and have the capacity to produce milk.

               Their superior brains, warm blood and the way they care for their young have given them a great advantage over other animals in the struggle for survival.

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