Curated category
Mammals described in 1758
- LionPanthera leo, the lion, holds a peculiar distinction among Earth's great predators: no other animal has been so thoroughly woven into the human story while…
- CattleCattle have the largest biomass of any animal species on Earth, roughly 400 million tonnes of living flesh. That places them ahead of Antarctic krill at 379…
- SheepSheep recognize and remember the faces of fifty other sheep for over two years. That finding, reported in 2001 by Kenneth M.
- HorseThe horse, Equus ferus caballus, travels on the same bones a human would use to walk on tiptoe. It carries an average weight of 500 kg on a single toe per…
- Red deerRed deer have been watching humans for at least 40,000 years. Cave walls across Europe bear their painted likeness, pressed into stone during the Upper…
- GoatThe goat was one of the first animals humans ever domesticated. The earliest remnants of domesticated goats, dating back 10,000 years, were found at Ganj…
- European badgerThe European badger has a jaw strong enough to amputate a human hand. That documented fact, buried in the scientific literature, hints at something most…
- TigerThe tiger, Panthera tigris, holds a distinction that almost no other animal on earth can claim: in a 2004 online poll drawing more than 50,000 participants…
- WolfThe wolf, Canis lupus, is the largest wild member of the family Canidae alive today. A pack of fifteen can bring down an adult moose.
- Brown bearUrsus arctos, the brown bear, can weigh up to 600 kg, stand nearly three meters tall, and run down a moose across crusted snow.
- DogThe dog buried at Bonn-Oberkassel, Germany, lay beneath thick basalt blocks alongside a man and a woman, all three dusted with red hematite powder.
- American bisonThe American bison, Bison bison, once numbered an estimated 60 million individuals across North America. That figure is almost impossible to picture: a…
- DonkeyIn 2003, archaeologists excavating a tomb in Egypt made an unexpected discovery. Buried alongside what appeared to be one of the very first pharaohs were the…
- HippopotamusThe hippopotamus - whose name comes from the Ancient Greek for "river horse" - is one of the stranger animals alive on Earth today.
- HumanAny two humans, picked at random from anywhere on Earth, share over 99% of their genetic code. Yet from that thin margin of difference comes everything…