I, Mammal: The Story of What Makes Us Mammals in Science and Inquiry

From the Bookshelf of Science and Inquiry…

I, Mammal: The Story of What Makes Us Mammals

Liam Drew

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Dec 21, 2020 Petra lives on a little Caribbean island added it

Shelves: 1-awaiting-review-but-read

Update 1 For some, science will forever be an unknown country, "The platypus is more evidence for the amazing intelligence of God's design. Truly only a super-Intelligent Designer could make such an amazing combination of mammalian and reptilian features in a single creature." Creationwiki. The platypus is an extremely odd mammal. It in many ways bridges the gap between reptiles and mammals and thus is constantly referred to in this book. It helps explain evolution, not that someone up there in Update 1 For some, science will forever be an unknown country, "The platypus is more evidence for the amazing intelligence of God's design. Truly only a super-Intelligent Designer could make such an amazing combination of mammalian and reptilian features in a single creature." Creationwiki. The platypus is an extremely odd mammal. It in many ways bridges the gap between reptiles and mammals and thus is constantly referred to in this book. It helps explain evolution, not that someone up there in the sky is sifting through body parts and sticks a disparate bunch of them together, perhaps for fun. However, platypus are the cutest little things I've ever seen. Next to kittens.
____________________

Conundrum Balls. Why do some mammals have a scrotum and some don't? Elephants don't, vervet monkeys have very pretty bright blue balls, seals don't but sea lions do some of the time (in mating season), dolphins don't and neither do manatees, but Right whales have the biggest in the world 900 Kg (view spoiler).

Most mammals that have testicles have them hanging behind the penis, but marsupials have them in front and yellow-bellied house bats have them behind the anus. There are many theories why some mammals have visible balls and others keep them in their bodies, no one really knows.

And there was me thinking the simple definition of a mammal was has hair, produces milk and bears live young. Apart, that is, from echidnae and platypuses which lay eggs and secrete milk through their skin rather than nipples, someone's always got to be different, right?
____________________

It's no good, I can't get away from science books. I really tried yesterday and dnf'd the patronising and awfully-badly written (imnsho) For the Benefit of Those Who See: Dispatches from the World of the Blind and then the preachy, self-righteous anti-Mormon The Mormon Missionaries: An Inside Look at Their Real Message by an ex-Mormon, a born-again Christian who had seen the light. They both sounded good, but life is too short for books I'm not going to either enjoy or learn something from.

This started off great with a story of the author's premature baby and expressing milk and their lives being ruled by the thump and whirr of an electronic pumping machine. I had that too. My son was small, 5.75 lb and couldn't latch on because my breasts had gone up to 42G which kind of suffocated him but like the author I was determined my son would have breast milk. Then we get on to a list of countries and no. of mammals in them and he made that sound interesting, so I have a good feeling about this book. ...more

97 likes · Like · see review

Oct 28, 2017 Stacy marked it as to-read

Nov 16, 2017 Katy marked it as to-read

Dec 23, 2020 Nicola marked it as to-read

Group Home Bookshelf Discussions

Photos Videos

Send invite Members Polls

欧宝娱乐

From the Bookshelf of Science and Inquiry…

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

What Members Thought

Science and Inquiry