Lec14 Mammal Mammals formally Mammalia

The number of species accepted by the zoological community on any given calendar date depends on the classification scheme, and the figure changes continually as new species are discovered and the classification of others is revised. According to a major reference work, Mammal Species of the World, which is updated through periodic editions, 5676 species were known in 2005, distributed in 1,229 genera, 153 families and 29 orders. In 2008 the IUCN completed a 5-year, 17,000 scientist Global Mammal Assessment for its IUCN Red List, which counted 5488 accepted species at the end of that period^, The class is divided into two subclasses (not counting fossils): the Prototheria (order of Monotremata) and the Theria, the latter containing the infraclasses Metatheria(including marsupials) and Eutheria (the placentals). The classification of mammals between the relatively stable class and family levels having changed often, different treatments of subclass, infraclass and order appear in contemporaneous literature, especially for Marsupialia.

Except for the five species of monotremes (which lay eggs), all living mammal species give birth to live young. Most mammals, including the six most species-rich orders, belong to the placental group. The three largest orders, in descending order, are Rodentia (mice, rats, porcupines, beavers, capybaras, and other gnawing mammals), Chiroptera (bats), and Soricomorpha (shrews, moles and solenodons). The next three largest orders include the Primates, to which thehuman species belongs, the Cetartiodactyla (including the even-toed hoofed mammals and the whales) and the Carnivora (dogs, cats, weasels, bears, seals, and their relatives).

The early synapsid mammalian ancestors, a group which included pelycosaurs such as Dimetrodon, diverged from the amniote line that would lead to reptiles at the end of the Carboniferous period. Although they were preceded by many diverse groups of non-mammalian synapsids (sometimes referred to as mammal-like reptiles), the first true mammals appeared 220 million years ago in the Triassic period. Modern mammalian orders appeared in the Palaeocene and Eoceneepochs of the Palaeogene period. Phylogenetically, the clade Mammalia is defined as all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of monotremes (e.g.,echidnas and platypuses) and therian mammals (marsupials and placentals). This means that some extinct groups of "mammals" are not members of thecrown group Mammalia, even though most of them have all the characteristics that traditionally would have classified them as mammals. These "mammals" are now usually placed in the unranked clade Mammaliaformes together with true mammals.

Living mammal species can be identified by the presence of sweat glands, including those that are specialized to produce milk. However, other features are required when classifying fossils, since soft tissue glands and some other features are not visible in fossils. Paleontologists use a distinguishing feature that is shared by all living mammals (including monotremes), but is not present in any of the early Triassic synapsids: mammals use two bones for hearing that were used for eating by their ancestors. The earliest synapsids had a jaw joint composed of the articular (a small bone at the back of the lower jaw) and the quadrate (a small bone at the back of the upper jaw). Most reptiles including lizards, crocodilians, dinosaurs (and their descendants the birds) use this system, as did non-mammalian synapsids such as therapsids. Mammals have a different jaw joint, however, composed only of the dentary (the lower jaw bone which carries the teeth) and the squamosal (another small skull bone). In mammals the quadrate and articular bones have become the incus and malleus bones in the middle ear.

Mammals also have a double occipital condyle: they have two knobs at the base of the skull which fit into the topmost neck vertebra, and other vertebrates have a single occipital condyle. Paleontologists use only the jaw joint and middle ear as criteria for identifying fossil mammals, since it would be confusing if they found a fossil that had one feature, but not the other.

Classification
Over 70% of mammal species are in the orders Rodentia(blue), Chiroptera (red), and Soricomorpha (yellow)

George Gaylord Simpson's "Principles of Classification and a Classification of Mammals" (AMNH Bulletin v. 85, 1945) was the original source for the taxonomy listed here. Simpson laid out a systematics of mammal origins and relationships that was universally taught until the end of the 20th century. Since Simpson's classification, the paleontological record has been recalibrated, and the intervening years have seen much debate and progress concerning the theoretical underpinnings of systematization itself, partly through the new concept of cladistics. Though field work gradually made Simpson's classification outdated, it remained the closest thing to an official classification of mammals.

Class Mammalia

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  Subclass Prototheria: monotremes: platypuses and echidnas
  
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  Subclass Theria: live-bearing mammals
  
  • 
    Infraclass Metatheria: marsupials
    
  • 
    Infraclass Eutheria: placentals
    

In 1997, the mammals were comprehensively revised by Malcolm C. McKenna and Susan K. Bell, which has resulted in the "McKenna/Bell classification". Their 1997 book, Classification of Mammals: Above the species level, is the most comprehensive work to date on the systematics, relationships, and occurrences of all mammal taxa, living and extinct, down through the rank of genus. The new McKenna/Bell classification was quickly accepted by paleontologists, though recent molecular genetic data challenge several of the higher level groupings. The authors work together as paleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History, New York. McKenna inherited the project from Simpson and, with Bell, constructed a completely updated hierarchical system, covering living and extinct taxa that reflects the historical genealogy of Mammalia.

The McKenna/Bell hierarchical listing of all of the terms used for mammal groups above the species includes extinct mammals as well as modern groups, and introduces some fine distinctions such as legions andsublegions (ranks which fall between classes and orders) that are likely to be glossed over by the nonprofessionals.

The published re-classification forms both a comprehensive and authoritative record of approved names and classifications and a list of invalid names.

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  Subclass Prototheria: monotremes: echidnas and the Platypus
  
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  Subclass Theriiformes: live-bearing mammals and their prehistoric relatives
  
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    Infraclass †Allotheria: multituberculates
    
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    Infraclass †Triconodonta: triconodonts
    
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    Infraclass Holotheria: modern live-bearing mammals and their prehistoric relatives
    

Molecular studies based on DNA analysis have suggested new relationships among mammal families over the last few years. Most of these findings have been independently validated by retrotransposonpresence/absence data. The most recent classification systems based on molecular studies have proposed four groups or lineages of placental mammals. Molecular clocks suggest that these clades diverged from early common ancestors in the Cretaceous, but fossils have not yet been found to corroborate this hypothesis. These molecular findings are consistent with mammal zoogeography: