Introduction to Mammalogy.pdf

Introduction to Mammalogy
BS Zoology

1. NAVEED AKHTAR
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY

2. Introduction to Mammals
What are mammals?
Mammals are animals that have hair, are warm-blooded ,and
nourish their young with milk.
Mammals share a number of features, including (1) the
capacity for internal temperature control, often aided by a
coat of fur; (2) the possession of mammary glands, which,
provide nourishment for the young during early development;
and (3) with a few exceptions, the ability to give birth to
live young.
Some modern-day mammals include humans, apes, dogs,
mice, elephants, pandas, and many more.
There are only 4,629 described species listed in the most
recent taxonomic checklist but thousands have been extinct
and many have believed to be unknown

3. Conti…
What is Mammalogy ?
Mammalogy is the branch of biology that deals with the
study of mammals.
It encompasses such diverse areas as the structure,
function, evolutionary history, ethology, taxonomy,
management and economics of mammals.
Mammalogy has also been known as "mastology,"
"theriology," and "therology.
The person how study mammalogy is called as
mammologist.
Mammologists are typically involved in activities such as
conducting research, managing personnel, and writing
proposals.

4. Mammalogy branches off into other taxonomically-
oriented disciplines such as primatology (study of
primates), and cetology (study of cetaceans).
Mammologists Joseph Grinnell: First modern
mammologist of history

5. Why Study Mammals?
1. Components of functioning ecosystems
Mammals form critical links in terrestrial and aquatic
food webs, transferring energy and nutrients that power
biotic processes for maintaining diverse life forms
including, but certainly not limited to, our own
2. Source of Human Food:
3. Domestication
4. Research
The house mouse (Mus musculus) is one of the most
important model organisms (species used for scientific
studies because they are easy to work with) in biomedical
research and is valued for its small size, fecundity, short
generation time, and relatively simple husbandry

6. There are now numerous ―mouse models‖ of human
diseases— lab strains created by controlled breeding with
genotypes matching those of human diabetes, heart disease,
obesity, and other afflictions
5. Reservoirs or Vectors
Some mammals are important because they pose a threat to
humans, especially when they act as disease reservoirs or
vectors
Rodents are particularly common reservoirs for human
pathogens (i.e., they host the pathogenic organisms, but do
not get sick themselves). Han et al. (2015) found that 217 of
2,277 rodent species examined (about 10%) are reservoirs for
zoonoses (diseases transmitted from animals to humans)
caused by bacteria, fungi, flatworms, or protists.

7. 6. Invasive species
The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is
one such invasive species on the Iberian Peninsula,
where it is outside its natural range.
Rabbits spread in large numbers over the southern
two thirds of Australia following their introduction in
the mid1800s, and rabbit foraging has degraded
arid-land vegetation to the detriment of native
vertebrates (Australian Government 2011).

9. 7. Extinction and Conservation
In the 21st century, the most urgent mammalian
science is conservation, the study of how human-
induced changes to the biosphere are driving
mammal (and many other) species toward extinction
(Johnson et al. 2017).
Since the 16th century, 82 mammal species have
gone extinct, 2 have become extinct in the
wild, and 1,194 have come to be threatened with
extinction (IUCN 2018)

10. Topic # 2

11. ANTIQUITY
From times when most humans were hunters and
gatherers through the beginnings of agriculture 9,000 to
12,000 years ago, a body of knowledge about mammals
and other organisms was gleaned from experience and
passed from generation to generation.
With the advent of written language about 3,500 years
ago, some of this knowledge was recorded in glyphs,
augmenting artistic depictions and oral traditions
Particularly important in these early times was knowing
enough about local mammals to exploit them as food,
avoid being harmed by them, and keep them as pets or
work animals

12. Such mammalian lore formed the basis of later, more scholarly,
bodies of written information in civilization centers around the
world. Most of the history of mammalogy traces to the origins of
Western science in classical Greece around 600 BCE
1. Contribution of Mayr (1982)
Mayr (1982) credits three contributions of classical Greek
culture to the development of modern biology:
(1) an interest in natural history (observable facts about wild plants
and animals)
(2) philosophy, especially the commitment to explain natural
phenomena with natural causes (i.e., science, or an early form of it);
and
(3) an interest in medicine, disease, anatomy, and physiology
exemplified by the works of Hippocrates (460–377 BCE). Aristotle
(384– 322 BCE) is a towering figure among the Greeks in both
natural history and philosophy.

13. Ernst Mayr in 1994, after receiving an honorary
degree at the University of Konstanz

14. 2. Contribution of Aristotle in Mammalogy
Aristotle was one of the first to recognize whales and
dolphins as mammals • Until the late 18th century, much
scientific work on mammals was devoted to taxonomy or
to the practical matters of animal husbandry Aristotle:
founder of mammalogy
Historia Animalium, De Partibus Animalium, De Motu
Animalium, and De Generatione Animalium
Aristotle developed a working classification (Singer 1959)
that divided animals into vertebrates (enaima, with red
blood) and invertebrates (anaima, without red blood).
Vertebrates were partitioned into viviparous (live-
bearing) and oviparous (egg-laying) types.

15. 3. Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE)
Pliny the Elder—Roman scientist, and author of Natural
History, a 37-volume encyclopedia which attempted to pull
together all biological knowledge.
4.T. Barnum—American showman and circus-owner who
purchased the surviving specimens from the Lewis and Clark
expedition in 1846, most of which were destroyed in a fire in
1865.
5 Georges Buffon—French scientist who opened one of the
first natural history museums, the Jardi du Roi in Paris,
and who wrote the 44-volume Histoire Naturelle.
6.Mark Catesby—British naturalist who travelled through
much of what is now the southeastern United States,
providing descriptions of many animals and plants.

16. 7. Erasmus Darwin—English scientist, physician, and poet,
and grandfather of Charles Darwin. Erasmus expressed the
idea that all living things shared a common ancestry, and that
they could be modified by their reactions to the
environment. He also wrote bawdy poems about the sex lives
of plants and animals. His ideas influenced his grandson, who
was born after Erasmus’ death.
8. Carolus Linnaeus—Swedish botanist who devised the
system of biological classification and nomenclature that we
use in modified form today. The system appeared in close to
its present form in the 10
th
edition of Systema
Naturae, published in 1758. Linnaeus’ work eventually led
him to question the idea of fixity of species.

18. 9. Charles Lyell—English geologist who proposed that
the earth was very old, and that the forces which shape
its geology are the same ones that have been at work for
the entire history of the earth
(Uniformitarianism). Lyell was an important
influence and a life-long friend of Charles Darwin.
10. Thomas Malthus—English scholar who wrote An
Essay on the Priniciple of Population, in which he
proposed that human populations would increase
exponentially, while resources would increase linearly, if
at all. Darwin was influenced by Malthus’ essay, which
he applied to all organisms in his Theory of Natural
Selection.

19. Distinguished mammalogists