Category Archives: Mammals

Mammals are vertebrates belonging to the phylum Chordata. Biologists differ on how many orders make up the class Mammalia. Marsupials are traditionally classed as a single order – putting them on an equal footing with egg-laying mammals – but some mammalogists feel that they are so diverse that they should be classified in as many as seven different orders. There is also disagreement bout seals and sea lions: many mammalogists think that they are simply aquatic carnivores rather than animals deserving their traditional place in an order of their own.