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.
When the H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus was discovered on a poultry farm in Asia in 1996, there was little indication that it would become so widespread and so destructive. Within 30 years, it reached every ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 19, 2026
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Dr. Amy Baird, Professor of Biology at the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD), and her colleagues are seeking to change the attitude of biologists toward the meaning of taxonomic categories above the species level with ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 18, 2026
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The combination of a beaver-like body and duck-like bill of the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is only the first of a long list of strange features on this unique creature. These odd mammals also lay eggs, have venomous ...
From whale songs to lion roars, animals have evolved to stretch their voices across distances so that friends—and sometimes foes—can hear them. Each sound is coded with messages like "Come here!" "Back off!" "Danger's lurking!" ...
Evolution
Mar 10, 2026
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A well-established fact of infancy in mammals is that the mother is the primary adult with whom an infant will interact. This holds true across species, from the tiniest shrew to the most massive blue whale. However, infants ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 9, 2026
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Drones flying above the waters of Shetland have captured rare footage of harbor porpoises gathering in unusually large groups and engaging in mating behavior. The footage, gathered between 2019 and 2023, provides one of the ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 5, 2026
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Little Punch, a seven-month-old Japanese macaque living in the Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan, has captured hearts on the internet. Abandoned by his mother in the first few days of his life and raised by the keepers at the zoo, ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 5, 2026
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Walking on two legs has long been considered a milestone in human evolution and one of our most defining characteristics. Until now, researchers assumed that the first humans originated in Africa and that bipedalism developed ...
Evolution
Mar 4, 2026
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In 2022, a Russian whale researcher made a remarkable discovery on Bering Island off Russia's Pacific coast: a severed killer whale fin marked with the teeth of another killer whale. In 2024, it happened again. The two finds ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 2, 2026
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Deep into the Panamanian night, the forest hums with sound. Chirping insects form a steady backdrop, rain softly trickles from leaves. Somewhere above a stream, frogs call into the darkness. But I am not there to see this ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 2, 2026
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