The Class Mammalia is amazingly diverse, ranging from whales to marsupials to bats to primates. The more than 5,400 species occupy many habitats, with mammals present on all the continents. They are rare only on Antarctica and a few isolated islands.

Mammals present a complex set of conservation and management issues. Some species have become more numerous with the rise of human populations, while others have been extirpated or nearly so -- such as the Caribbean monk seal, the thylacine, the Chinese river dolphin, and the Pyrenean ibex.

In this new edition of their classic textbook, George A. Feldhamer and his colleagues cover the many aspects of mammalogy. Thoroughly revised and updated, this edition includes treatments of the most recent significant findings in ordinal-level mammalian phylogeny and taxonomy; special topics such as parasites and diseases, conservation, and domesticated mammals; interrelationships between mammalian structure and function; and the latest molecular techniques used to study mammals.