How many species of mammals are there?
2017/11/15 by Connor J Burgin, Connor Burgin, Jocelyn P Colella +4 · 1,156 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Psychology · #Bat Biology and Ecology Studies #Biology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Geography #Primate Behavior and Ecology #Zoology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/jmammal/gyx147
published in Journal of Mammalogy 99(1), 1-14 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2017/11/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Abstract
Accurate taxonomy is central to the study of biological diversity, as it provides the needed evolutionary framework for taxon sampling and interpreting results. While the number of recognized species in the class Mammalia has increased through time, tabulation of those increases has relied on the sporadic release of revisionary compendia like the Mammal Species of the World (MSW) series. Here, we present the Mammal Diversity Database (MDD), a digital, publically accessible, and updateable list of all mammalian species, now available online: https://mammaldiversity.org. The MDD will continue to be updated as manuscripts describing new species and higher taxonomic changes are released. Starting from the baseline of the 3rd edition of MSW (MSW3), we performed a review of taxonomic changes published since 2004 and digitally linked species names to their original descriptions and subsequent revisionary articles in an interactive, hierarchical database. We found 6,495 species of currently recognized mammals (96 recently extinct, 6,399 extant), compared to 5,416 in MSW3 (75 extinct, 5,341 extant)—an increase of 1,079 species in about 13 years, including 11 species newly described as having gone extinct in the last 500 years. We tabulate 1,251 new species recognitions, at least 172 unions, and multiple major, higher-level changes, including an additional 88 genera (1,314 now, compared to 1,226 in MSW3) and 14 newly recognized families (167 compared to 153). Analyses of the description of new species through time and across biogeographic regions show a long-term global rate of ~25 species recognized per year, with the Neotropics as the overall most species-dense biogeographic region for mammals, followed closely by the Afrotropics. The MDD provides the mammalogical community with an updateable online database of taxonomic changes, joining digital efforts already established for amphibians (AmphibiaWeb, AMNH’s Amphibian Species of the World), birds (e.g., Avibase, IOC World Bird List, HBW Alive), non-avian reptiles (The Reptile Database), and fish (e.g., FishBase, Catalog of Fishes). Una taxonomía que precisamente refleje la realidad biológica es fundamental para el estudio de la diversidad de la vida, ya que proporciona el armazón evolutivo necesario para el muestreo de taxones e interpretación de resultados del mismo. Si bien el número de especies reconocidas en la clase Mammalia ha aumentado con el tiempo, la tabulación de esos aumentos se ha basado en las esporádicas publicaciones de compendios de revisiones taxonómicas, tales como la serie Especies de mamíferos del mundo (MSW por sus siglas en inglés). En este trabajo presentamos la Base de Datos de Diversidad de Mamíferos (MDD por sus siglas en inglés): una lista digital de todas las especies de mamíferos, actualizable y accesible públicamente, disponible en la dirección URL https://mammaldiversity.org/. El MDD se actualizará con regularidad a medida que se publiquen artículos que describan nuevas especies o que introduzcan cambios de diferentes categorías taxonómicas. Con la tercera edición de MSW (MSW3) como punto de partida, realizamos una revisión en profundidad de los cambios taxonómicos publicados a partir del 2004. Los nombres de las especies nuevamente descriptas (o ascendidas a partir de subespecies) fueron conectadas digitalmente en una base de datos interactiva y jerárquica con sus descripciones originales y con artículos de revisión posteriores. Los datos indican que existen actualmente 6,495 especies de mamíferos (96 extintas, 6,399 vivientes), en comparación con las 5,416 reconocidas en MSW3 (75 extintas, 5,341 vivientes): un aumento de 1,079 especies en aproximadamente 13 años, incluyendo 11 nuevas especies consideradas extintas en los últimos 500 años. Señalamos 1,251 nuevos reconocimientos de especies, al menos 172 uniones y varios cambios a mayor nivel taxonómico, incluyendo 88 géneros adicionales (1,314 reconocidos, comparados con 1,226 en MSW3) y 14 familias recién reconocidas (167 en comparación con 153 en MSW3). Los análisis témporo-geográficos de descripciones de nuevas especies (en las principales regiones del mundo) sugieren un promedio mundial de descripciones a largo plazo de aproximadamente 25 especies reconocidas por año, siendo el Neotrópico la región con mayor densidad de especies de mamíferos en el mundo, seguida de cerca por la region Afrotrópical. El MDD proporciona a la comunidad de mastozoólogos una base de datos de cambios taxonómicos conectada y actualizable, que se suma a los esfuerzos digitales ya establecidos para anfibios (AmphibiaWeb, Amphibian Species of the World), aves (p. ej., Avibase, IOC World Bird List, HBW Alive), reptiles “no voladores” (The Reptile Database), y peces (p. ej., FishBase, Catalog of Fishes).
Citations
Cited by
- Macroecological patterns of mammals across taxonomic, spatial, and temporal scales
- Patterns in research and data sharing for the study of form and function in caviomorph rodents
- The global biomass of wild mammals
- Effects of size, phylogeny and locomotor habits on the pelvic and femoral morphology of South American spiny rats (Rodentia: Echimyidae)
- African bat database: curated data of occurrences, distributions and conservation metrics for sub-Saharan bats
- Alternative splicing expands the antiviral IFITM repertoire in Chinese rufous horseshoe bats
- All the Earth will not remember: how geographic gaps structure the record of diversity and extinction
- Body mass evolution as a driver of morphological and ecological diversity in terrestrial mammals
- Alternative splicing expands the antiviral IFITM repertoire in Chinese horseshoe bats
- Rapid divergence with gene flow creates intractable nodes in the tree of life: an empirical demonstration in the buzzing flowerpecker ( Dicaeum hypoleucum )
- Evaluating the use of taxonomy in the IUCN Red List
- Historical shifts, geographic biases, and biological constraints shape mammal species discovery
- Cryptic species and taxonomic revision of kangaroo mice, the rodent genus Microdipodops
- A molecular inventory of the faecal microbiomes of 23 marsupial species
- Occipital condyle width (OCW) is a highly accurate predictor of body mass in therian mammals
- Entropy generation in the Malpighian tubule and its comparison with the mammalian nephron
- Classifying rodent diets for comparative research
- How many mammal species are there now? Updates and trends in taxonomic, nomenclatural, and geographic knowledge
- Integrative species delimitation reveals an Idaho-endemic ground squirrel, Urocitellus idahoensis (Merriam 1913)
- Evolutionary Footprint: A Systemic Indicator in Evolution, Ecology and Conservation
- Genome Evolution and the Enigmatic Axial Skeleton of the Hero Shew (Soricidae: Scutisorex Somereni )
- Placental crises: disruptive selection and maternal under‐investment as the foundations of mammalian placental evolution and dysfunction
- Measuring Biodiversity and Extinction—Present and Past
- Genomic differentiation and gene flow among Rattus species distributed in China and adjacent regions
- Novel 20th century rotavirus alphagastroenteritidis strains identified in formalin-fixed and ethanol-preserved museum specimens
- Biodiversity conservation depends on the expansion of taxonomy and systematics research
- AviList: a unified global bird checklist
- BatSpot: A retrainable neural network for automatic detection and classification of bat echolocation and detection of buzzes and social calls
- The Influence of Habitat Heterogeneity and Rainfall on Small Mammal Diversity and Reproduction in an Ethiopian Landscape
- De novo genome assembly of a Geomyid rodent, Botta’s pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae bottae)
- Coalescent-delimitation framework disentangles species boundaries within the Neotropical mouse-opossums subgenus Marmosops
- A scalable exemplar-based method for aligning biological taxonomies
- Exon Capture Museomics Deciphers the Nine-Banded Armadillo Species Complex and Identifies a New Species Endemic to the Guiana Shield
- Comparative forelimb morphology of scratch‐digging and chisel‐tooth digging African mole‐rat species
- Free‐ranging Southern anteater mating behavior: Contribution to Tamandua natural history
- BatSpot: a retrainable neural network for automatic detection and classification of bat echolocation and detection of buzzes and social calls
- Priorities for conservation rely heavily on discovery and assessments
- Bat Cave Vulnerability to Anthropogenic Factors: Status and Priorities for Conservation Within the Mount Elgon Region, Uganda
- Reproductive Strategies and Their Relevance to Vertebrate Conservation
- Where the tree of life is empirically resolved, and where it is not: an open atlas of species-level phylogenies and their archival uncertainty
- United by conflict: Convergent signatures of parental conflict in angiosperms and placental mammals
- Range-wide mitochondrial phylogeography of Sorex monticola: evolutionarily distinct clades occupy divergent abiotic niches
- Discovering Relationships between Object Categories via Universal Canonical Maps
- Snapshot Japan 2023: the first camera trap dataset under a globally standardised protocol in Japan
- Rewilding a vanishing taxon – Restoring aquatic ecosystems using amphibians
- Limited and biased global conservation funding means most threatened species remain unsupported
- A brief review of vertebrate sex evolution with a pledge for integrative research: towards ‘ sexomics ’
- Distribution and phylogenetic relationships of the Mexican large-toothed shrew Sorex macrodon
- A specimen-based database of small-eared shrews (Mammalia, Eulipotyphla, Cryptotis) in the Neotropical Region
- Anatomy of the Petrosal and Middle Ear of the Brown Rat, Rattus norvegicus (Berkenhout, 1769) (Rodentia, Muridae)
- Language-specific hotspots of interest in IUCN Red Listed terrestrial mammals
- Conservation of the world’s mammals: status, protected areas, community efforts, and hunting
- The role of conflict in the formation and maintenance of variant sex chromosome systems in mammals
- Economic costs of invasive rodents worldwide: the tip of the iceberg
- A New Genus and Species of Vesper Bat from West Africa, with Notes on Hypsugo, Neoromicia, and Pipistrellus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae)
- An emerging consensus in the evolution, phylogeny, and systematics of marsupials and their fossil relatives (Metatheria)
- Rodent systematics in an age of discovery: recent advances and prospects
- Evolutionary history of Sundaland shrews (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae:Crocidura) with a focus on Borneo
- Large-scale evolution of body temperatures in land vertebrates
- The evolution of perennially enlarged breasts in women: a critical review and a novel hypothesis
- Inferring the mammal tree: Species-level sets of phylogenies for questions in ecology, evolution, and conservation
- Did Pleistocene Africans use the spearthrower‐and‐dart?
- Big, flightless, insular and dead: Characterising the extinct birds of the Quaternary
- The oldest semi-aquatic beaver in the world and a new hypothesis for the evolution of locomotion in Castoridae
- Craniodental Morphology and Phylogeny of Marsupials
- The origin of placental mammal life histories
- Attenuated evolution of mammals through the Cenozoic
- First record of insectivore from the late Oligocene, Kargil Formation (Ladakh Molasse Group), Ladakh Himalayas
- Brawn before brains in placental mammals after the end-Cretaceous extinction
- Mammal Diversity Database
- Oceanic islands of Wallacea as a source for dispersal and diversification of murine rodents
- Are there too many fern genera?
- Available names for Rangifer (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Cervidae) species and subspecies
- Strangers in a strange land: Ecological dissimilarity to metatherian carnivores may partly explain early colonization of South America by Cyonasua- group procyonids
- Stop the Abuse of Time! Strict Temporal Banding is not the Future of Rank-Based Classifications in Fungi (Including Lichens) and Other Organisms
- A precarious future for distinctive peripheral populations of meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus)
- Mammal [wikipedia]
- Flies as models for circadian clock adaptation to environmental challenges. [europepmc]
- B Chromosomes in Populations of Mammals Revisited. [europepmc]
- Molecular identification of Betacoronavirus in bats from Sardinia (Italy): first detection and phylogeny. [europepmc]
- Bat Flies and Their Microparasites: Current Knowledge and Distribution. [europepmc]
- Inferring the mammal tree: Species-level sets of phylogenies for questions in ecology, evolution, and conservation. [europepmc]
- Rickettsiae in the common pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) and the bat soft tick Argas vespertilionis (Ixodida: Argasidae). [europepmc]
- The origins of acoustic communication in vertebrates. [europepmc]
- Endemism patterns are scale dependent. [europepmc]
- Bat-borne virus diversity, spillover and emergence. [europepmc]
- The Importance of Human Emotions for Wildlife Conservation. [europepmc]
- Risk of human-to-wildlife transmission of SARS-CoV-2. [europepmc]
- Does public fear that bats spread COVID-19 jeopardize bat conservation? [europepmc]
- The impact of locomotion on the brain evolution of squirrels and close relatives. [europepmc]
- Metagenomic analysis of fecal and tissue samples from 18 endemic bat species in Switzerland revealed a diverse virus composition including potentially zoonotic viruses. [europepmc]
- Full-Genome Sequences of Alphacoronaviruses and Astroviruses from Myotis and Pipistrelle Bats in Denmark. [europepmc]
- Common Themes in Zoonotic Spillover and Disease Emergence: Lessons Learned from Bat- and Rodent-Borne RNA Viruses. [europepmc]
- Extinction of threatened vertebrates will lead to idiosyncratic changes in functional diversity across the world. [europepmc]
- Land-use change and rodent-borne diseases: hazards on the shared socioeconomic pathways. [europepmc]
- Evolutionary impacts of purine metabolism genes on mammalian oxidative stress adaptation. [europepmc]
- Expert range maps of global mammal distributions harmonised to three taxonomic authorities. [europepmc]
- Chirohepevirus from Bats: Insights into Hepatitis E Virus Diversity and Evolution. [europepmc]
- Economic costs of invasive rodents worldwide: the tip of the iceberg. [europepmc]
- Evolutionary constraint and innovation across hundreds of placental mammals. [europepmc]
- New estimates indicate that males are not larger than females in most mammal species. [europepmc]
- Disease tolerance as immune defense strategy in bats: One size fits all? [europepmc]
Related