 |
What is a mammal? |
Creature Features
To make them easier to talk about, scientists have categories that they use for different types of animals. The categories are based on characteristics shared by certain animals. Most likely you’re already familiar with a few of the category names, like insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and fish!
In addition to these, mammals are another category! You should consider it a pretty cool one, too – it’s the category we humans are part of!
Mammals are vertebrate animals (having a backbone) that are warm-blooded (able to maintain their own body temperature). There are many things that most mammals have in common, but there are two specific characteristics unique to mammals: All mammals have hair on their bodies (at least a little bit of it at some point in their lives), and all mammals nurse their young with milk, like a mommy and a baby!
Other characteristics that are common in mammals include giving live birth to babies (instead of a baby that hatches from an egg) and having four legs (or a set of arms and a set of legs!).
Within mammals, there are three classes: Monotremes (a small class that include the duck-billed platypus), marsupials (like koalas and kangaroos), and placentals (like humans, monkeys, dogs, elephants, and many more!).
Mammal Mania!
Have a grown-up help you make a list of animals that are mammals. When you think about an animal and are trying to decide whether or not it would be a mammal, consider the special characteristics that make mammals unique!
What are some examples of mammals you were able to think of? Good examples include dogs and cats, horses, cows, monkeys and apes, giraffes, bears, and (also!) humans. Examples that might be harder to think of include dolphins and whales. (We often don’t think of them as having hair, but they do have a small amount, particularly when they’re young.)
What are some animals you can think of that wouldn’t be mammals? Why??
