Bats are mammals in the order Chiroptera. The forelimbs of bats are webbed and developed as wings, making them the only mammals
naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding
possums and colugos, glide rather than fly, and only for short distances. Bats do not flap their entire forelimbs, like birds,
but instead flap their spread out digits, which are very long and covered with a thin membrane or patagium.
The diverse order Carnivora (from Latin carō "flesh", + vorāre "to devour") includes over 260 species of placental mammals.
Its members are formally referred to as carnivorans, while the word "carnivore" (often popularly applied to members of this
group) can refer to any meat-eating animal.
The even-toed ungulates form the mammal order Artiodactyla, the group that contains the pigs, peccaries, hippopotamuses, camels,
chevrotains (mouse deer), deer, giraffes, pronghorn, antelopes, sheep, goats, and cattle. They are ungulates whose weight
is borne about equally by the third and fourth toes, rather than mostly or entirely by the third as in odd-toed ungulates
(perissodactyls).
The order Cetacea (L. cetus, whale, from Greek) includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Cetus is Latin and is used in biological
names to mean "whale"; its original meaning, "large sea animal", was more general. It comes from Ancient Greek κῆτος (kētos),
meaning "whale" or "any huge fish or sea monster". In Greek mythology the monster Perseus defeated was called Ceto, which
is depicted by the constellation of Cetus.
The order Soricomorpha ("shrew-form") is a biological clade within the class of mammals. In previous years it formed a significant
group within the former Insectivora order. However, that order was shown to be polyphyletic and various new orders were split
off from it, including Afrosoricida, Macroscelidea (elephant shrews), and Erinaceomorpha, leaving just four families as shown
here, leaving Insectivora empty and disbanded.
The odd-toed ungulates are browsing and grazing mammals such as horses, tapirs and rhinoceroses whose hooves each feature
an odd number of toes. The middle toe on each hoof is also usually larger than its neighbors. Together, odd-toed ungulates
form the order Perissodactyla. They are relatively large and, unlike the ruminant even-toed ungulates (artiodactyls), they
have relatively simple stomachs.
