What are three characteristics of a mammal?

Answer 1

All mammals are warm blooded.

Mammals give birth to live young with the exception of duck billed platypus.

At some point in their lives they have hair, this hair may fall out as they grow older, this happens in animals such as dolphins.

Every mammal is a vertebrate.

All mammals have lungs to breathe air.

They have mammary glands (nipples) to feed milk to their young with the exception of duck billed platypus that secretes milk through its fur.

hope this helped.

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Mammals have three characteristics that no other group shares;

They have *true* hair.

True hair grows from special skin cells called follicles. Some other animals have hair like structures, true hair is a a rod of cells that are reinforced by the protein keratin.All mammals have hair on some part of the body at some time in their life. Hair takes the form of fur, whiskers, quills ( hedge hogs, porcupines) or even horns (rhinoceros).

They produce milk for feeding young from mammary glands.

Both male and females posses mammary glands but male production of milk is neglgible at the most. ( Nipples are not mammary glands, they are the delivery system for milk and are connected to the mammary glands by ducts [tubes]. Breasts are not mammary glands, they are fatty and connective tissue protecting the glands. Udders are not mammary glands but a container of them. The platypus and echidna have mammary gland but no nipples. they also lay eggs which is why live birth is not a unique characteristic of mammals.)

The third characteristic is internal and not obvious. There are three very small bones in the middle ear between the ear drum and inner ear.

The bones are commonly called hammer, anvil, and stirrup because of their shape. They transform sound to nerve carried signals. The hammer and anvil are derived from what are jaw bones in all other vertebrates. No other group has such an arrangement.

There are other characteristics of mammals, as listed in first answer, but they are also shared by other groups. Some groupings of shared characteristics can identify mammals but only mammals have the three characteristics listed after the asterisks.

Answer 2

Three characteristics that are unique to mammals include their ability to feed their babies with milk made in their mammary glands. Mammals also have hair on their bodies and they have a single bone that makes up their lower jaw.

Answer 3

I think you're referring to:

1. Fur

2. Production of milk.

3. Live birth

#3 is not really true, as monotremes are mammals that lay eggs.

See "Characteristics that are common to all mammals?"

Answer 4

There are more than three.

A Mammal is normally defined as a warm blooded animal with a covering of fur, skin or hair which gives birth to live young who are nourished with milk, and who are vertebrate. All mammals suckle their young, but there is a sub-group known as monotremes, which are the egg-laying mammals. This group includes just the platypus and the echidna. They are still mammals because, like all mammals, they feed their young on mothers' milk. Mammals also breathe through lungs.

Most mammals are also characterised by the following other anatomical features as well:

- A flexible neck with seven cervical vertebrae

- Mammals also show enhanced neocortex development

- Sound is produced by the larynx (a modified region of the trachea)

- limbs are oriented vertically

- The mammalian heart has 4 chambers

- Internal temperature is generally high

- Egg development occurs in the uterus (excluding monotremata)

Answer 5

Air-breathing, vertebrates, warm blooded, 4 chambered heart, have hair, three middle ear bones, and feed young with breast milk. Most mammals have sweat glands and have a placenta which feeds the offspring during gestation. Except for the five species of monotremes (which lay eggs), all living mammal species give birth to live young.

Answer 6

All mammals give live birth to their offspring (with the exception of monotremes such as echidnas and platypi).

All mammals have mammary glands used to give milk to their young.

All mammals have fur or hair somewhere on their body (In the case of dolphins, there is hair in their nostrils)

Answer 7

1. Warm-blooded vertebrates

2. Fur or hair

3. viviparous and mammary glands

Answer 8

They are warm blooded, they have hair, or have had hair at one point in their life, they birth live babies, they feed their babies with milk