In the 2012 President's Budget Request, the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is terminated. As a result, all resources, databases, tools, and applications within this web site will be removed on January 15, 2012. For more information, please refer to the NBII Program Termination page.
Kingdom: Animalia
Division: Chordata
Subdivision: Vertebrata
Class: Mammalia
Mammals (class Mammalia)
What are Mammals?
Mammals of the southeastern U.S. include vertebrates of the taxonomic class Mammalia including animals such as American marsupials (order Didelphimorphia), Insectivores (order Soricomorpha), Bats (order Chiroptera), Edentates (order Cingulata), Lagomorphs (order Lagomorpha), Rodents (order Rodentia), Carnivores (order Carnivora), and Artiodactyls (order Artiodactyla). Thought of as warm-blooded, mammals are endotherms, meaning they are able to regulate their own body temperature independently of the temperature of their surroundings. Mammal characteristics include skin covered with hairs, females with mammary glands that secrete milk to feed young, and a reproduction strategy of internal fertilization and bearing relatively mature live offspring. Mammals in the Southeast region include numerous taxonomic families within the taxonomic orders below.