The New Childrens Encyclopedia

LIVING WORLD

There are five species of mammal that don’t give birth

to live young, but instead lay eggs. They are called

monotremes and include the duck-billed platypus.

Once hatched, young monotremes feed on their

mother’s milk, just like other mammals.

There are

more than

330 species of

pouched mammal

in seven orders,

including kangaroos,

opossums, and the koala.

Commonly called marsupials,

these mammals give birth to

very tiny young. The newborns

crawl inside their mother’s

pouch, where they feed on

milk and continue to grow.

Monkeys, lemurs, apes, and humans are

all primates. Primates have grasping

hands and forward-facing eyes. The

great apes (including chimpanzees,

gorillas, and the orangutan) are

humans’ closest relatives.

Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly

(not just glide). All bats have wings, which are,

in fact, delicate webbed hands. Hearing is very

important to bats: they can find prey and avoid

obstacles in total darkness by

listening to the way their calls

echo off nearby objects.

ORDER, ORDER!

There are more than 5,000 species of mammal,

arranged into 28 orders. The members of an order

tend to be descended from a shared ancestor and

are united by similar anatomy or lifestyle. For

example, camels, deer, hippopotamuses, giraffes,

cattle, whales, and dolphins are all families within

the order Cetartiodactyla.

POUCHED MAMMALS

 SAFE

INSIDE

A joey in

its mother’s

pouch.

There are 12 families of meat-eating mammals grouped

into one order called carnivores. They have bodies that

are adapted to hunting and eating flesh.

 LESSON TIME

Polar-bear cubs learn

to hunt by watching

their mother.

CARNIVORES

BATS

Leopard

Panthera pardalis

MONOTREMES

PRIMATES

LIVING WORLD

MAMMALS

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