Other Mammals

This group gathers Mammals subcategory members that do not belong to any of this subcategory's other groups, spanning several of the most evolutionarily distinct branches of the mammal family tree. It includes the monotremes, the platypus and the echidnas, the only living mammals that lay eggs rather than give live birth, the pangolins, the only mammals covered in overlapping protective scales rather than fur, and the aardvark, a burrowing, termite eating mammal that is the sole living member of its own order and, despite a superficial resemblance to the anteaters, not a close relative of any Xenarthran. What unites this group is simply that each lineage in it is different enough from every other group above to not belong inside any of them, rather than any shared ancestry or appearance among its own members.