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1 - Quo Vadis?

from Part I - Carnival of the Animals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2021

Alan F. Dixson
Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellington
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Summary

Representatives of the Class Mammalia are to be found on every continent, and in every ocean of the world. They comprise a handful of extraordinary egg-laying species (the monotremes), as well as 7 orders of marsupials and 19 orders of placental mammals. Phylogeny, and modes of life, as well as sexual selection (via sperm competition and cryptic female choice) have all profoundly influenced mammalian reproductive biology. The reproductive adaptations of these animals have been forged over vast spans of time, beginning some 297–252 million years ago, during the Permian Period, when one branch of the synapsid reptiles (the Therapsida) gave rise to the furry, warm-blooded forerunners of the Class Mammalia (Kemp, 2005). Some therapsids survived a major extinction event that occurred at the close of the Permian; their modern descendants include the echidnas, kangaroos and possums, elephants, whales, rodents, bats and primates, as well as a host of other taxa.

Type
Chapter
Information
Mammalian Sexuality
The Act of Mating and the Evolution of Reproduction
, pp. 3 - 5
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Quo Vadis?
  • Alan F. Dixson, Victoria University of Wellington
  • Book: Mammalian Sexuality
  • Online publication: 20 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108550758.003
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  • Quo Vadis?
  • Alan F. Dixson, Victoria University of Wellington
  • Book: Mammalian Sexuality
  • Online publication: 20 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108550758.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Quo Vadis?
  • Alan F. Dixson, Victoria University of Wellington
  • Book: Mammalian Sexuality
  • Online publication: 20 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108550758.003
Available formats
×