Montana Difford

The two characteristics that distinguish mammals from other classes of vertebrates
are that their skin is covered with hair or fur, and milk producing glands (mammary
glands) in the female to nurse the young.

The most primitive living mammals belongs to the order Monotremata, these
animals are native to the Australian region and include the duck-billed platypus
and the spiny anteater. These animals lay a reptilian type of egg, which hatch
to young that receive nourishment from the mother’s mammary glands.

Marsupialia mammals give birth to live young (viviparous), but the young are
born at a very early stage of development and continue their maturation in a
pouch, where they attach to nipples of the mammary gland. Australian
kangaroos and American opossums are members of this order.

Order: Man- Primates Cat- Carnivora

Genus: Man- sapiens Cat- domestica

Species: Man- Homo Cat- Felis

15 years

~9 weeks 9 (tech. 10) months

2 to 5
 8; has a sphenoid and only one frontal 11; the cat consists of 2 frontal and a
interparietal
14; has 2 inferior conchae and only one 15; has 2 premaxilla and no interior
mandible conchae
This bone does not articulate with any other bone. It’s is In the cat, this bone is more extended and consists of eleven bones. The

suspended by ligaments from the styloid processes of the anterior horn is attached to the tympanic bulla of the temporal bone, and the
posterior horn is attached to the thyroid cartilage of the larynx.
temporal bone.

26 49-53

12 13

The sternum is reduced and consists of
3 fused portions.
The clavicle articulates with the scapula
The sternum is elongated and consists
of 8 separate units called sternebrae.
The clavicles are slender and curved, and do not articulate
with any portion of the skeleton. They lie embedded in the
shoulder muscle.

The forelimbs of a cat are homologous to those of man and are

Each forelimb is composed of the upper arm and
named identically. The carpal bones are 7 in a cat though.
the lower arm, with 8 carpal bones.

5 digits 4 digits

Humans walk plantigrade, meaning on
the entire sole of the foot.
32; man has 3 molars on top and bottom,
and have 2 premolars top and bottom
The cat’s gait is called digitigrade, meaning that the animal
walks on its digits with the remainder of the foot elevated.
30; cat has 1 molar top and bottom, but 3
premolars on top and only 2 on the bottom

Variations in the number of vertebrae (49-53 for cat and 26 for man
Man has 22 separate skull bones, whereas the cat has 35-40
There are 13 pairs of ribs in the cat, but only 12 in man
The cat has 7 carpal bones, while the man has 8
The cat has 5 digits on the foreleg but only 4 on the hind leg

The clavicles of the cat are reduced. The do not articulate with the sternum or scapula
as in man, but instead are embedded in muscle.