Mammal Names and Marsupials

As you know, if you have been reading my pages, I have decided to devote much of 2007 to learning the Linnaean classification system as fully as I can. I do this not only because it aids me in understanding the world and in developing my vocabulary and spelling abilities, but also because 2007 is the 300th year anniversary of Linnaeus' birth. Proper honor to this thinker who helped us organize how we think about the natural world requires not just lifting a glass to him but entering in great depth into the world he tried to describe. Actually, there is probably more uncertainty, discussion and debate in the field of taxonomy in 2007 than at any other time in the past century. DNA evidence is radically affecting the way that we think that families/orders/classes may be related to one another; the "last word" on taxonomy is still many years away. Thus, Linnaeus bequeathed to us not simply a rigid system but a way of seeing life that has lots of suppleness and subtleness in it.

I am currently engaged in a study of the 26 Orders of Mammals. These orders comprise around 5000 species. When one considers that the comprehensive taxonomic and species-listing project, which ought to be completed by 2011, only has about 1,100,000 described species so far, we will be 1/200 of the way "there" after we understand something about mammalian life. And the introduction to mammalian life brings with it so many insights and new words that the difficulty in mastering long Latin and Greek names more than repays the effort. But when we embark on a long study of the natural world by plowing through the Linnaean classification system we need to do it in a "smart" way. That is, when we approach the mammals, with 26 Orders, comprising 5,000 species, we ought to know at the outset which Orders are the "biggies." There are only about five or so. Here is a listing of the largest Orders, with their Species numbers, in the Class of Mammals:

1. Carnivora-- 13 Families and about 285 species
2. Chiroptera (Bats) -- approximately 1100 species
3. Insectivora (eating insects) -- approximately 420 species
4. Primates (of which humans are one)--approximately 400 sp.
5. Rodentia (rodents)--the largest Mammal species--2000 sp.

Thus we see that five Orders of Mammals comprise more than 80% of the Mammal species. The marsupials (7 orders, consisting primarily of shrews, bilbies, kangaroos, possums and wallabies) not only have fantastic Greek-derived names, such as Dasyuromorphia, Didelphimorphia, Diprodontia, Microbiotheria, Notoryctemorphia, Paucituberculata, and Peramelemorpha, but they contribute another 270 or so species. The 14 remaining Orders only consist of about 600 or so species. For example, a very interesting Order of Mammals called the Xenarthra, formerly called Edentata (toothless ones), consists of three families, the Myrmecophagidae (ant-eaters), Bradypodiae (slow of foot--sloths) and Dasypodidae (thick-footed--armadilloes) has only about eight genera with 20 species. You could take quite some time on any one of the genera or species, for that matter, but you can also get a rough overview of the various orders without too much difficulty.

The Fun of Mammals

The fun of mammals in 2007 is that pictures of all of them are online, with ample descriptions provided by the University of Michigan (Animal Diversity Web), Wikipedia articles, or tons of pictures by amateur and professional photographers. By studying them you learn so much not only about them but about life in general and often about human life. People can be "sloths," I suppose, when they are slow-moving and seem to spend all their time sleeping. But by learning about mating patterns, housing arrangements, community or solitary interests, tooth-patterns and hosts of other things, we become, possibly not surprisingly, more intimately connected with these creatures. We see ourselves not simply as sharing the same Co2 as these creatures but participating in the same symphony of life as they do.

But for me the fascinating thing about learning is all the new words that I learn. Whenever I think of myself as smart, I just need to plunge into the complex world of mammals or other living creatures, and I beome instantly aware of my comparative lack of creativity, smallness of knowledge and self-centeredness. Let's devote the remainder of this essay to some words you learn from the study of mammals. The next essay will consider the place where multiple spelling can lead us to greatest difficulties as spellers--in foreign foods that we Americans are just starting to "bring" into our language.

A Few Interesting Mammal Words--The Marsupials

Sometimes the "popular," in addition to the Linnaean, names of mammals are unfamiliar to us. For example, the Order Dasyuromorphia has 71 species divided into three famiies: the Thylacinidae, the Dasyuridae, and the Myrmecobiidae. What are some of the "popular" names of these Australian marsupials? Well, the numbat is in the Myrmecobiidae family. Actually, this "banded anteater," as it was formerly called, has a series of 5 to 11 whilte bands crossing its lower back and rear, and though it can eat ants its diet consists almost exclusively of termites. Yummy. The Wikipedia article mentions that these critters, which weigh about a pound and are slightly less than a foot long, faced a steep decline in numbers until the last 30 or so years. Natural predators, including the red fox, almost wiped them out. But now they are returning. In any case, we have another word--numbat--and a picture. The numbat is the only species in the entire family. Sometimes the classification system is like that...By the way, a wombat, which sounds similar to a numbat, is also a burrowing marsupial, but is of the Order Diprodontia and Vombatidae family. The Diprodontia is the largest Order of marsupials, consisting of about 137 species arranged in 13 familes. See how much fun we are beginning to have?

Well, before we leave the Dasyuropmorphia, we ought to learn a few other "popular" names of some of these creatures. From one of the other two families (the Dasyuridae--meaning "hairly-tailed) of the 71-species Dasyuromorphia we have "antechinuses, quolls, dunnarts, the Tasmanian Devil, and relatives," such as the Kowari and mulgara. I confess that I had never run into quolls before today. Quoll is the aboriginal name for the native cat, and this little cutey is about one to two feet long, with a tail about a third that length. Picture is here. And then a 1993 quotation from the Environment Digest helps us see which of these marsupials were threatened. Here is a sentence: "Among those animals threatened are the mala, sandhill dunnart, numbat, mulgara and western-barred bandicoot." Though the OED has an entry for mulgara, it doesn't have antechinus (from above), nor does it have "mala." Well, it has a listing for "mala," but the OED defines "mala" as "a necklace; a string of prayer beads," in Hinduism and Sikhism. However, I did discover that the mala (marsupial) is the "Rufous Hare-wallaby." But I have gone on long-enough in this essay. Let's turn to one more on mammal words before taking a "break" with food words.

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