Canadian Medical Guide > Organisms > Animals > Chordata > Vertebrates > Mammals Terms and Definitions

Mammals

Medical Definition:	Warm-blooded vertebrate animals belonging to the class Mammalia, including all that possess hair and suckle their young. It includes three major groups: placentals and marsupials, which are vivparous, and monotremes, which are oviparous. (Dorland, 28th ed.)
Guide Notes:	avoid: too general: prefer specifics

Mammals Categories.

	Artiodactyla
	Carnivora
	Cetacea - An order of wholly aquatic mammals occurring in all the oceans and adjoining seas of the world, as well as in certain river systems. Some cetaceans are the only animals other than elephants that have a brain larger than man's. Most have eyes well adapted to underwater vision and can also see well above water. They produce numerous underwater sounds used in echolocation. They feed generally on fish, cephalopods, and crustaceans. Most are gregarious and most have a relatively long period of parental care and maturation. (From Walker's Mammals of the World, 5th ed, pp969-70)
	Chiroptera - Order of mammals whose members are adapted for flight. It includes bats, flying foxes, and fruit bats.
	Elephants - Large mammals with columnar limbs, bulky bodies, and elongated snouts. They are the only surviving members of the Proboscidea; others of which (mastodon) are extinct. Do not confuse with the Proboscidea plant genus (PEDALIACEAE).
	Hyraxes - Any of certain small mammals of the order Hyracoidea.
	Insectivora - An order of insect eating MAMMALS including MOLES; SHREWS; HEDGEHOGS and tenrecs.
	Lagomorpha - An order of small mammals comprising two families, Ochotonidae (pikas) and Leporidae (RABBITS and HARES). Head and body length ranges from about 125 mm to 750 mm. Hares and rabbits have a short tail, and the pikas lack a tail. Rabbits are born furless and with both eyes and ears closed. HARES are born fully haired with eyes and ears open. All are vegetarians. (From Nowak, Walker's Mammals of the World, 5th ed, p539-41)
	Marsupialia
	Monotremata
	Perissodactyla - An order of ungulates having an odd number of toes, including the horse, tapir, and rhinoceros. (Dorland, 27th ed)
	Pinnipedia
	Primates
	Rodentia - A mammalian order which consists of 29 families and many genera.
	Scandentia - An order of the class MAMMALS that consists of one family, TUPAIIDAE (tree shrews), 5 genera (one of which is TUPAIA), and 16 species. Their recent distribution is from India to the Philippines, southern China to Java, Borneo, Sumatra, Bali, and other islands in those regions.
	Sirenia - An order of heavy-bodied, slow-moving, completely aquatic, herbivorous mammals. The body is fusiform, plump, and hairless, except for bristles on the snout. Hindlimbs are absent, the forelimbs are modified to flippers, and the tail is a horizontal fluke. (From Scott, Concise Encyclopedia Biology, 1996)
	Xenarthra - An order of New World mammals characterized by the absence of incisors and canines from among their teeth, and comprising the ARMADILLOS, the SLOTHS, and the anteaters. The order is distinguished from all others by what are known as xenarthrous vertebrae (xenos, strange; arthron, joint): there are secondary, and sometimes even more, articulations between the vertebrae of the lumbar series. The order was formerly called Edentata. (From Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed; Walker's Mammals of the World, 5th ed, vol. I, p515)

Mammals Medical Definitions and Terms

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