• Question: What is the biology of a mammal?

    Asked by SCIENCE BOSS to Freddie, Jena, Kirsten, Kon, Zarah on 13 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Jennifer Bates

      Jennifer Bates answered on 13 Nov 2016:

      Mammals are vertebrate animals, so they have a spinal cord inside a bony spine. They have hair, feed their young with milk, have three middle ear bones (the anvil, hammer and stirrup), have a part of the brain called a neocortex, and with the exception of two species, give birth to live young. The two exceptions are the spiny anteater and the platypus which both lay eggs, but they do feed their young on milk. The spiny anteater and platypus are the last surviving members of a Monotremata order of mammals, which is why they lay eggs rather than give birth to live young like the other mammals alive today.

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