Mammalogy is the branch of zoological science dedicated to the study of mammals, encompassing their taxonomy, evolutionary relationships, anatomy, physiology, behavior, ecology, and biogeography. It integrates comparative morphology, molecular systematics, and fossil evidence to elucidate mammalian phylogeny and diversification. Mammalogists investigate population dynamics, life-history strategies, and species interactions within ecosystems, often using quantitative field methods such as mark–recapture, radio-telemetry, and noninvasive genetic sampling. The discipline also underpins evidence-based conservation and wildlife management by assessing extinction risk, habitat requirements, and responses to anthropogenic change, and it contributes to broader biological theory regarding endothermy, reproductive strategies, sensory systems, and mammalian adaptations to diverse environments.
A new study of wild bats reveals that an animal's immune system is shaped by more than its need to fight infections. Researchers from the University of Maryland have found that sex, age and competition for mates influence ...
Evolution
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European brown bears are masters of survival: These animals have weathered Pleistocene climate fluctuations and survived the cycles of ice ages and interglacial periods to the present day. Zoologists have now investigated ...
Evolution
21 hours ago
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The pangolin is a midsize mammal found only in Africa and Asia. The pangolins' scales make them unique, but these scales have become their undoing. Pangolins are poached for their scales, making them the most highly trafficked ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 1, 2026
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The tight fit of a baby's head through a mother's birth canal, which causes great difficulty in childbirth, is not unique to humans, as previously understood. Instead, some small-bodied primate babies have heads almost twice ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 29, 2026
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Fossils tucked away in a museum drawer and identified merely as "feline" are actually from a very ancient and enigmatic saber-toothed cat that inhabited North America more than 5 million years ago. Newly identified by a UC ...
Evolution
Jun 27, 2026
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Australia is home to unusual mammals not found anywhere else—consider the platypus, Tasmanian devil or red kangaroo. But did you know our understanding of this continent's incredible mammalian diversity is still incomplete?
Plants & Animals
Jun 25, 2026
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New research from the University of St. Andrews shows how sperm whale vocal dialects evolve as they adopt new calls while still remembering the old. An international team of researchers studying vocal dialects in the endangered ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 23, 2026
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The modern Colorado moose is often considered just that: modern—brought to the state by wildlife officials in the late 1970s, preceded by very occasional reports of moose sightings in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Plants & Animals
Jun 23, 2026
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Domestic cats age in remarkably similar ways to humans and show comparable age-related patterns of brain deterioration, according to an international collaboration among the University of Bath in the U.K., Auburn University ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jun 22, 2026
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Cats are the most popular companion animals worldwide, and many people have multiple cats at home. In these multicat households, not all the cats get along equally well. Until recently, it was thought that if a cat licks ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 22, 2026
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