the.com/mammalogy
the science of everything that ever nursed its young, from blue whales to bumblebee bats
means The branch of zoology devoted to the study of mammals — their biology, behavior, classification, and evolution.
from A scientific compound stitched from "mammal" — from Latin "mamma," meaning breast (the milk-giving feature that defines the whole group) — plus "-logy," the Greek "-logia," meaning the study or account of something, ultimately from "logos," word or reason. So the word literally means "the study of the breasted ones," a fitting label for animals defined by the act of nursing. The "mammal" half traces to Linnaeus, who in the 18th century chose the nursing trait as the group's namesake; "mammalogy" as the name for the discipline came later, built on his foundation.
- size range
- Bumblebee bat to blue whale, a trillionfold span
- naming origin
- Mammals named for mammary glands, not fur or warmth
- egg-layers
- Platypus and echidna are mammals that lay eggs
- open frontier
- New mammal species still discovered yearly
- diverse club
- Roughly 6,400 living species and counting
journal of mammalogy — peer-reviewed publication since 1919, flagship journal for mammal research and discovery