Mammalia in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae
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The Mammalia in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae forms one of six classes of animals in Carl Linnaeus's tenth reformed edition written in Latin.[1] The following explanations are based on William Turton's translations who rearranged and corrected earlier editions published by Johann Friedrich Gmelin, Johan Christian Fabricius and Carl Ludwig Willdenow:[2]
Animals that suckle their young by means of lactiferous teats. In external and internal structure they resemble man: most of them are quadrupeds; and with man, their natural enemy, inhabit the surface of the Earth. The largest, though fewest in number, inhabit the ocean.
Linnaeus divided the mammals based on the number, situation, and structure of their teeth; mammals have the following characteristics:
- Heart: two auricles, 2 ventricles. Warm, dark red blood;
- Lungs: respires alternately;
- Jaw: incombent, covered. Teeth usually within jaw;
- Teats: lactiferous;
- Organs of sense: tongue, nostrils, eyes, ears, and papillae of the skin;
- Covering: hair, which is scanty in warm climates, hardly any on aquatics;
- Supports: four feet, except in aquatics; and in most a tail. Walks on the Earth and speaks.[2]
Oldfield Thomas scrutinized Linnaeus's chapter on mammals in 1911 and attempted to find missing type species and type localities.[3]