What is the Meaning of: Mammals | Concept and Definition of: Mammals
Mammals are warm blooded vertebrate animals which, in most cases, develop inside the mother's body and females feed their young with the milk produced by their udders.
Despite the fact that most mammals are viviparous (that is, they grow in the belly of the female), Platypus and Echidnas, which originate from an egg, are an exception. Whatever it is, the class of mammals (Mammalia) assumes a monophyletic taxon, since all species are descended from a common ancestor.
There are more 5.410 mammal species, which shows the great diversity of this kind of animal. The largest mammal, the blue whale can weigh up to 160 tonnes; the boulem bat, on the other hand, is the smallest mammal with just two grams of weight. Humans, on the other hand, are also mammals.
The variety of mammals is that they can be present in environments as various as the desert, the jungle, rainforests and polar glaciers, for example.
There are certain anatomical and physiological communes in all mammals. Apart from the fact that they produce milk in their mammary glands, mammals are covered with hair, have a chain of ossicles in the middle ear and a single bone in the lower jaw (dentary).
On the other hand, the sex of the mammal is determined from the existence of two chromosomes at the time where the zygote is formed. These chromosomes are known under the names X and Y.