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.

Get outside! A hands-on lab manual for instructors incorporating fieldwork into their courses on mammalogy. Mammals inhabit nearly every continent and every sea. They have adapted to life underground, in the frozen Arctic, the hottest deserts, and every habitat in-between. In Mammalogy Techniques Lab Manual—the only field manual devoted to training the next generation of mammalogists—biologist and educator James M. Ryan details the modern research techniques today’s professionals use to study mammals wherever they are found. Ideal for any mammalogy or wildlife biology course, this clear and practical guide aids students by getting them outside to study mammals in their natural environments. Twenty comprehensive chapters cover skull and tooth identification, radio and satellite GPS tracking, phylogeny construction, mark and recapture techniques, camera trapping, museum specimen preparation, optimal foraging, and DNA extraction, among other topics. Each chapter includes several exercises with step-by-step instructions for students to collect and analyze their own data, along with background information, downloadable sample data sets (to use when it is not practical to be out in the field), and detailed descriptions of useful open-source software tools. This pragmatic resource provides students with real-world experience practicing the complex techniques used by modern wildlife biologists. With more than 60 applied exercises to choose from in this unique manual, students will quickly acquire the scientific skills essential for a career working with mammals.

“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

"Newly revised and extensively updated, the fifth edition of Mammalogy explains and clarifies the subject of mammalian biology as a unified whole, taking care to discuss the latest and most fascinating discoveries in the field. In recent years we witnessed significant changes in the taxonomy of mammals. The authors kept pace with such changes and revised each chapter to reflect the most current data and statistics available. New pedagogical elements, including chapter outlines, lists of key morphological characteristics, and further reading sections, help readers grasp the most important concepts and explore additional content on their own." --Book Jacket.

This reference and guidebook offers illustrations, descriptions, and measurements for the skulls of some 275 animal species found throughout North America. The skull is the key anatomical feature used to identify an animal and understand many of its behaviors. This book describes in words and pictures the bones and regions of the skull important to identification, including illustrations of all the bones in the cranium, leading to a greater understanding of a creature's place in the natural world. With life-size drawings, this guide is a reference for wildlife professionals, trackers, and animal-lovers.