29.6 Mammals

Mammals are vertebrates that possess hair and mammary glands. Several other characteristics are distinctive to mammals, including certain features of the jaw, skeleton, integument, and internal anatomy. Modern mammals belong to three clades: monotremes, marsupials, and eutherians (or placental mammals).

Characteristics of mammals

The presence of hair is one of the most obvious signs of a mammal. Although it is not very extensive on certain species, such as whales, hair has many important functions for mammals. Mammals are endothermic, and hair provides insulation to retain heat generated by metabolic work. Hair traps a layer of air close to the body, retaining heat. Along with insulation, hair can serve as a sensory mechanism via specialized hairs called vibrissae, better known as whiskers. These attach to nerves that transmit information about sensation, which is particularly useful to nocturnal or burrowing mammals. Hair can also provide protective coloration or be part of social signaling, such as when an animal’s hair stands “on end.”

Mammalian integument, or skin, includes secretory glands with various functions. Sebaceous glands produce a lipid mixture called sebum that is secreted onto the hair and skin for water resistance and lubrication. Sebaceous glands are located over most of the body. Eccrine glands produce sweat, or perspiration, which is mainly composed of water. In most mammals, eccrine glands are limited to certain areas of the body, and some mammals do not possess them at all. However, in primates, especially humans, sweat figures prominently in thermoregulation, regulating the body through evaporative cooling. Sweat glands are located over most of the body surface in primates. Apocrine glands , or scent glands, secrete substances that are used for chemical communication, such as in skunks. Mammary glands produce milk that is used to feed newborns. While male monotremes and eutherians possess mammary glands, male marsupials do not. Mammary glands likely are modified sebaceous or eccrine glands, but their evolutionary origin is not entirely clear.

The skeletal system of mammals possesses many unique features. The lower jaw of mammals consists of only one bone, the dentary    . The jaws of other vertebrates are composed of more than one bone. In mammals, the dentary bone joins the skull at the squamosal bone, while in other vertebrates, the quadrate bone of the jaw joins with the articular bone of the skull. These bones are present in mammals, but they have been modified to function in hearing and form bones in the middle ear ( [link] ). Other vertebrates possess only one middle ear bone, the stapes. Mammals have three: the malleus, incus, and stapes. The malleus originated from the articular bone, whereas the incus originated from the quadrate bone. This arrangement of jaw and ear bones aids in distinguishing fossil mammals from fossils of other synapsids.