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Studying mammals: A winning design
The term mammal encompasses a huge variety of animals, including humans. But what makes a mammal a mammal? This free course, Studying mammals: A winning design, explores some of the features, such as reproduction, lactation and thermoregulation methods, that mammals have in common. It is the first in a series of ten Studying mammals courses.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- explain the distinctive biological features of monotremes
- distinguish contrasting modes of reproduction in monotremes, marsupials and placental mammals
- describe the cellular basis of lactation and explain the benefits of an early diet of milk
- explain the significance of mammalian metabolic rate
- explain how and why the thermogenic response differs among species.
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