Introduction to Mammalogy.pdf
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Mammals are defined as animals that have hair, are warm-blooded, and nourish their young with milk. Some key mammalian features include temperature regulation, mammary glands, and giving birth to live young. Mammalogy is the study of mammals and includes their structure, function, evolution, behavior, taxonomy, and management. Important figures in the early history of mammalogy include Aristotle, who developed one of the first classification systems for animals, and Pliny the Elder, who compiled a large encyclopedia of biological knowledge. More recent influential mammalogists established natural history museums, explored North America documenting plants and animals, and developed systems for biological classification.
Introduction to Mammalogy.pdf
- 1. N A V E E D A K H T A R A S S I S T A N T P R O F E S S O R O F Z O O L O G Y
- 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 10th 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.