Mammalia

We, as humans are mammals, along with thousands and thousands of other different species. All mammals contain many different systems such as the circulatory, respiratory and reproductive system. All mammals have a four-chambered heart, in which the right side receives unoxygenated blood and then pumps in to the lungs. The left side of the heart recieves oxygenated blood and then pumps it to the rest of the body. For the respiratory system, all mammals contain lungs. The lungs work with the heart, to move oxygen around the body. With this, all mammals are warm blooded. For the reproduction system, mammals for the most part either contain female or male organisms. Because of this mammals must reproduce sexually. Mammal's teeth and jaw is different from other classes of organisms. Mammal's teeth are shaped for a specific task, like our molars are shaped in a way for grinding our food. The mammal's jaw is only made of one bone, while other animals have more than one bone in the lower part or thier jaw bone. Our ears are also one of our diagnostic characteristics, where all mammals contain three middle bones within thier ears.

Unlike many different kinds of species, mammals can be either carnivores, herbivores or omnivores. All mammals aquire thier food by their mouth and digest it within their body, by breaking up the food into different elements and support the body's functions. Once the food is broken down by the body (through the saliva and the stomach) and all the nutrients are recieved from the food (by the small and large intestines), the food is then sent to the anus, which gets rid of all extra waste.

All mammals have five different senses, as we probably already know. These senses consist of sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. Although each animal is equipped with all five senses, some senses in certain animals work better than others. For example, a bat cannot see all that well, but their hearing is extraordinary. Some mammals also contian different kinds of senses of touch, such as a cat might have whiskers to help sense things in their environment.

Mammals move around in all sorts of manners, either by the use of fins, limbs or wings. Mammals have many different ways to move around either by walking, jumping, swimming or flying. Even this there are over a dozen different ways to move in these four categories. To name a few, some mammals are able to: walk diagonally, leap, crawl or glide.

Because of our respiration cycle, our body prudes alot of waste, including carbon dioxide an nitrogen. Carbon dioxide from the body is removed by exhaling, while oxygen is obtained by inhaling. Nitrogen is removed in what we think of as urine. The urethra is the structure within all mammals that connects the bladder to the outside evironment, and is used to excrete the urine and nitrogenous waste.

Blood throught the mammal body musst be carried throughout the entire body somehow, which is where the cardiovascular system, or circulatory systems come in. Blood is pumped into the heart, and circulation begins when the heart pumps the blood, which is filled with critical nutrients into the lungs. The lungs hold our oxygen, and once the blood is pumped into the lungs, the blood is then oxygenated. By doing this, the blood no longer contains carbon dioxide, and the blood is then brought back to the heart. From there, the blood is then spread out to the rest of the body.

Of course, with mammals being such a large catagory there are many means by which mammals use to protect themselves from pray. This does not always mean that a mammal will use violent attacks such as poison or horns to attack a predator, but these mammals can also use techniques such as herds, coloration and camoflauge to confuse predators. For example, when a shark is attacking a certain dolphin, the rest of the pod will group together and attack the shark with their noses on weak points on the shark, such as the underbelly.

All mammals require water to live, and to seek this balance of too much water or too little water the animal will have ways to seek osmotic balance. If there is too much water, the kidney will increase the amount of urine, however if the animal is dehydrated, the kidneys will conserve the water, and send signals to the brain, making the organism seek out water. Because mammals living in salt water, aren't not able to actually drink the water they are living in (salt water does not hydrate the body) marine mammals are forced to eat animals that have enough matabolism.

A mammals body is, for the most part, warmer than the outside environment. For example, think of yourself. Our body temperature is around 97 degrees F, however our environment does not reach a heat of that temperature. Like right now, in December, the temperature outside is only about 45 degrees F, nowhere close to our body temperature. For this reason mammals usually lose heat in their body. Body techniques such as shivering can help prevent the amount of heat the body is losing. In extreme cases, like animals living in artic environments, some have hormones that tell the body to produce more heat instead of ATP, or energy. Some animals, such as polar bears use insulation techniques such as blubber to protect themselves from the cold and maintain heat. Many mammals use their fur to protect themselves. In warmer climates, to cool off the most common type of cooling adaptations include panting and sweating. Some mammals, such as elephants do not pant or sweat, and instead use the natural environment to cool off, by bathing in pools and streams. Other mammals such as groundhogs use tactics such as hibernation to store energy, because producing heat causes the body to lose a lot of energy.

For reproduction, all mammals reproduce sexually, however methods do vary. There are three different catagories: Monotremes, marsupials and eutherian mammals. Eutherian mammals include us and most other mammals. These types of mammals go through a long period of pregnancy (9 months in humans) and the embroys are actually connected to the mother. For marsupials, the baby is actually still born as an embroy but is carried around in a pouch on the mother until completly developed. For monotremes, there are only two different types of organisms that fall into this category: platypus and echidnas. These mammals are indeed mammals, but lay eggs, different from any other animal.

Works Cited:

https://sharon-taxonomy2009-p3.wikispaces.com/Chordata-Mammalia

http://www.shsu.edu/~bio_mlt/mammals.html