Draft:Mammal (rewrite)

This is a draft that anyone is free to edit as they would a mainspace page. Do not add categories to draft pages; use {{draft categories}} instead for a view. Contributors should nominate draft articles for deletion only if they believe that the article is not applicable to RationalWiki's mission. Articles involving living persons must conform to our guidelines on biographies of living people.

Mammals are vertebrate tetrapods of the class Mammalia. They are synapsids, as opposed to birds and other reptiles, which are sauropsids. They are named after the mammary glands, which mammals use to feed their young via lactation. Other traits that distinguish them from sauropsids are the presence of fur, a neocortex in their brain, and three middle ear bones. As of 2018, there are around 6,400 known extant mammal species.

Types of mammals

Protomammals/stem mammals

See the main article on this topic: Synapsid

Placental mammals

Atlantogenata

Xenarthra

Armadillos, sloths, anteaters

Afrotheria

Aardvarks, elephant shrews, hyraxes, elephants, manatees, etc.

Boreoeutheria

Euarchontoglires

Rodents, lagomorphs, primates, etc.

Laurasiatheria

Hedgehogs, bats, ungulates, pangolins, carnivores, etc.