A Manual of the Mammalia : An Homage to Lawlor's "Handbook to the Orders and Families of Living Mammals"

The taxonomy of recent mammals has lately undergone tremendous revision, but it has been almost four 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 "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." -- Jacquette "This is in many ways an homage and complete update to the original "Handbook to the Orders and Families of Living Mammals" by T.E. Lawlor, published in 1979. This handbook introduces mammology students to all orders and families of living mammals. This is a new work, now up to date with current revisions to mammalian taxonomy."--Supplied by publisher