Mammal

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Mammals are a group of vertebrate animals. They form the class Mammalia.

A mammal is any animal that produces and feeds its young with milk and is warm-blooded; the heat they need to live is made inside their body. The milk is made by glands in the skin.

There are very few mammals that lay eggs, called Monotremes (for example the platypus). But almost all mammals give birth to living young. Those mammals can be divided into the Marsupials and the Eutheria, the placental mammals.

Most mammals have four legs and a coat of hair or fur.

[edit] Taxonomy

Mammals can be divided in a number of groups:

• Monotremes
• Marsupials
• Eutheria
  • Superorder Xenarthra
    • Order Pilosa
    • Order Cingulata
  • Superorder Afrotheria
    • Order Proboscidea
  • Superorder Laurasiatheria
    • Order Insectivora
    • Order Chiroptera
    • Order Carnivora
    • Order Perissodactyla
    • Order Artiodactyla
    • Order Cetacea
  • Superorder Euarchontoglires
    • Order Rodentia
    • Order Lagomorpha
    • Order Primates

See also: Mammalia (taxonomy)

Vertebrates
Amphibian • Bird • Fish • Mammal • Reptile