mammalian

Other forms: mammalians

Use the adjective mammalian to describe warm-blooded vertebrates with hair, or anything related to them. Your sister might be fond of snakes and frogs, while you'd prefer a mammalian pet, like a dog or cat.

You, your pet dog, a gorilla, and a skunk all have something very important in common: you can all be described as mammalian, since you are all in the scientific class known as Mammalia. Mammalian characteristics range from having three small bones in each ear, to not being born inside an egg (with the exception of the platypus and other monotremes), to being nursed by a mother as an infant.

Definitions of mammalian

1. adjective

   of or relating to the class Mammalia
2. noun

   any warm-blooded vertebrate having the skin more or less covered with hair; young are born alive except for the small subclass of monotremes and nourished with milk
   synonyms: mammal

   types:

   female mammal

   animals that nourish their young with milk

   tusker

   any mammal with prominent tusks (especially an elephant or wild boar)

   prototherian

   primitive oviparous mammals found only in Australia and Tasmania and New Guinea

   metatherian

   primitive pouched mammals found mainly in Australia and the Americas

   eutherian, eutherian mammal, placental, placental mammal

   mammals having a placenta; all mammals except monotremes and marsupials

   fossorial mammal

   a burrowing mammal having limbs adapted for digging

   egg-laying mammal, monotreme

   the most primitive mammals comprising the only extant members of the subclass Prototheria

   marsupial, pouched mammal

   mammals of which the females have a pouch (the marsupium) containing the teats where the young are fed and carried

   farm animal, livestock, stock

   any animals kept for use or profit

   bull

   mature male of various mammals of which the female is called `cow'; e.g. whales or elephants or especially cattle

   cow

   mature female of mammals of which the male is called `bull'

   yearling

   an animal in its second year

   buck

   mature male of various mammals (especially deer or antelope)

   doe

   mature female of mammals of which the male is called 'buck'

   insectivore

   small insect-eating mainly nocturnal terrestrial or fossorial mammals

   aquatic mammal

   whales and dolphins; manatees and dugongs; walruses; seals

   carnivore

   a terrestrial or aquatic flesh-eating mammal

   Fissipedia

   in some classifications considered a suborder of Carnivora

   Orycteropus afer, aardvark, ant bear, anteater

   nocturnal burrowing mammal of the grasslands of Africa that feeds on termites; sole extant representative of the order Tubulidentata

   bat, chiropteran

   nocturnal mouselike mammal with forelimbs modified to form membranous wings and anatomical adaptations for echolocation by which they navigate

   gnawing mammal, lagomorph

   relative large gnawing animals; distinguished from rodents by having two pairs of upper incisors specialized for gnawing

   gnawer, rodent

   relatively small placental mammals having a single pair of constantly growing incisor teeth specialized for gnawing

   naked mole rat

   fetal-looking colonial rodent of East Africa; neither mole nor rat; they feed on tubers and have a social structure similar to that of honeybees and termites

   Damaraland mole rat

   colonial mole rat of western Africa; similar to naked mole rat

   Ungulata

   in former classifications a major division of Mammalia comprising all hoofed mammals; now divided into the orders Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates) and Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates)

   hoofed mammal, ungulate

   any of a number of mammals with hooves that are superficially similar but not necessarily closely related taxonomically

   Unguiculata

   in former classifications a major division of Mammalia comprising mammals with nails or claws; distinguished from hoofed mammals and cetaceans

   unguiculate, unguiculate mammal

   a mammal having nails or claws

   coney, cony, das, dassie, hyrax

   any of several small ungulate mammals of Africa and Asia with rodent-like incisors and feet with hooflike toes

   pachyderm

   any of various nonruminant hoofed mammals having very thick skin: elephant; rhinoceros; hippopotamus

   edentate

   primitive terrestrial mammal with few if any teeth; of tropical Central America and South America

   anteater, pangolin, scaly anteater

   toothless mammal of southern Africa and Asia having a body covered with horny scales and a long snout for feeding on ants and termites

   primate

   any placental mammal of the order Primates; has good eyesight and flexible hands and feet

   tree shrew

   insectivorous arboreal mammal of southeast Asia that resembles a squirrel with large eyes and long sharp snout

   colugo, flying cat, flying lemur

   arboreal nocturnal mammal of southeast Asia and the Philippines resembling a lemur and having a fold of skin on each side from neck to tail that is used for long gliding leaps

   proboscidean, proboscidian

   massive herbivorous mammals having tusks and a long trunk

   plantigrade, plantigrade mammal

   an animal that walks with the entire sole of the foot touching the ground as e.g. bears and human beings

   digitigrade, digitigrade mammal

   an animal that walks so that only the toes touch the ground as e.g. dogs and cats and horses

   type of:

   craniate, vertebrate

   animals having a bony or cartilaginous skeleton with a segmented spinal column and a large brain enclosed in a skull or cranium