Other Mammal Families

This group gathers taxon/Mammal Families subcategory members that are themselves genuine mammal families but that this atlas's own sourced descriptions do not identify with one of the twelve more specific mammal-order groups gathered separately above. Its one member, Manidae, is the only extant family of pangolins, placed in its own distinct order, Pholidota, comprising three living genera and eight recognized living species, animals immediately recognizable for a covering of overlapping, keratin scales unique among mammals, an adaptation that lets a threatened pangolin curl into a tight, armored ball much like an armadillo despite no close relation to that unrelated group. Every family gathered here is a genuine mammal family by the broad definition of the class Mammalia; the split above exists only to keep twelve especially large or well-known orders browsable on their own rather than to draw a biological line excluding anything placed here.