The taxonomy of recent mammals has lately undergone tremendous revision, but it has been decades since the last update to Timothy E. Lawlor’s acclaimed identification guide the Handbook to the Orders and Families of Living Mammals. Integrating the latest advances in research, Douglas A. Kelt and James L. Patton provide this long-overdue update in their new, wholly original work, A Manual of the Mammalia. Complemented by global range maps, high-resolution photographs of skulls and mandibles by Bill Stone, and the outstanding artwork of Fiona Reid, this book provides an overview of biological attributes of each higher taxon while highlighting key and diagnostic characters needed to identify skulls and skins of all recent mammalian orders and most families. Kelt and Patton also place taxa in their currently understood supra-familial clades, and discuss current challenges in higher mammal taxonomy. Including a comprehensive review of mammalian anatomy to provide a foundation for understanding all characters employed throughout, A Manual of the Mammalia is both a user-friendly handbook for students learning to identify higher mammal taxa and a uniquely comprehensive, up-to-date reference for mammalogists and mammal-lovers from across the globe.

“An outstanding contribution. . . . The glossary and illustrations are excellent and most helpful. This book will be the standard for years to come.” —Robert M. Timm, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, and past president, American Society of Mammalogists Douglas A. Kelt and James L. Patton provide a long-overdue update to Timothy E. Lawlor’s Handbook to the Orders and Families of Living Mammals in their new, wholly original work, A Manual of the Mammalia. Complemented by global range maps, high-resolution photographs of skulls and mandibles by Bill Stone, and the outstanding artwork of Fiona Reid, this book provides an overview of biological attributes of each higher taxon while highlighting key and diagnostic characters needed to identify skulls and skins of all recent mammalian orders and most families. Kelt and Patton also place taxa in their currently understood supra-familial clades, and discuss current challenges in higher mammal taxonomy. Including a comprehensive review of mammalian anatomy to provide a foundation for understanding all characters employed throughout, A Manual of the Mammalia is both a handbook for students learning to identify higher mammal taxa and a uniquely comprehensive reference for mammalogists from across the globe. “[A] comprehensive, lavishly illustrated reference book.” —Nature “A success overall. Recommended.” —Choice “There is hardly a better manual for comparing old and new taxonomic and phylogenetic constructs for the Class Mammalia.” —Michael A. Mares, director, curator, and professor emeritus, Sam Noble Museum, University of Oklahoma, and past president, American Society of Mammalogists “Kelt and Patton take mammalogy from a 1990’s flip phone to iPhone 13. A Manual of the Mammalia is entirely on a higher plane.” —Journal of Mammalogy

Refined in detail through three editions, the manuals outstanding features include: an explanation of keys and how to use them; the inclusion of keys designed to identify by order or family extant mammals of the world; special sections containing comments and suggestions on identification; information on working with map coordinates and global positioning receivers; coverage of the use of computer programs to get estimates of home-range size and characteristics; and ideas for locating reliable, authoritative literature on mammals. A section on techniques for studying mammals in the field and in the laboratory rounds out this student-friendly learning tool. Beautifully wrought illustrations and diagrams accurately portray visual details of mammal groups or characteristics that are unavailable to study in person. Moreover, well-designed laboratory exercises provide opportunities to apply knowledge and master understanding.

The first detailed account of post-copulatory sexual selection and the evolution of reproduction in mammals.

-- Jean-Louis Hartenberger, Nature

02 Mammals of the WorldA ChecklistAndrew Duff and Ann LawsonThis is the first checklist of mammals of the world to include both English and scientific names of every species as well as a brief summary of distribution and habitat. A checkbox and space to record notes are provided for each species, making this an ideal volume for keeping a personal mammals life list. With 5,049 species included, the checklist is the most up-to-date available today.An appendix gives further details and offers a literature citation for over 519 species that either have been described as new to science or have been elevated from synonymy since 1993. Comprehensive indexes to English and scientific names assist with finding species that may appear in field guides or other works on mammals under different names. The book will be an invaluable resource for mammalogists everywhere, but will also appeal to any well traveled naturalist, including world birders and safari travelers, with an interest in recording mammals.Andrew Duff and Ann Lawson are experienced naturalists who have been studying mammals for many years. Between them they have birded and mammal-watched in many countries on five continents. Mammals of the WorldA ChecklistAndrew Duff and Ann LawsonThis is the first checklist of mammals of the world to include both English and scientific names of every species as well as a brief summary of distribution and habitat. A checkbox and space to record notes are provided for each species, making this an ideal volume for keeping a personal mammals life list. With 5,049 species included, the checklist is the most up-to-date available today.An appendix gives further details and offers a literature citation for over 519 species that either have been described as new to science or have been elevated from synonymy since 1993. Comprehensive indexes to English and scientific names assist with finding species that may appear in field guides or other works on mammals under different names. The book will be an invaluable resource for mammalogists everywhere, but will also appeal to any well traveled naturalist, including world birders and safari travelers, with an interest in recording mammals.Andrew Duff and Ann Lawson are experienced naturalists who have been studying mammals for many years. Between them they have birded and mammal-watched in many countries on five continents.