Mammals!

This book is set up as a mission for Agent Osprey, who is the senior librarian of the Eagle-Eyed Explorer Club, to learn as much as she possibly can about mammals. In the book, we learn what makes an animal a mammal. For example, most mammals give birth to live young, except for the platypus, which lays eggs. Once born, mammals will feed their babies milk from their own bodies. Also, mammals have fur, even whales that live in the ocean. Their skin may look slick and hairless, but it’s there! Mammals are also mostly warm-blooded. That means they can regulate their own body temperature, unlike reptiles, which must bask in the sun to increase their body temperature.

The book also discusses the evolution of mammals. One of the first mammals was Hadrocodium, and he ate insects. One of my favorite mammals from the book was Darwinius, who was a relative of lemurs that lived during the Paleogene period. I also liked Gigantopithecus, who was a ten-foot-tall ape!

There’s even a section about human mammal scientists that have contributed to the understanding of modern mammals today. I love that this book has a six-foot timeline inside that unfolds from the back. I really enjoyed it because it shows the evolution of mammals, broken down by time period. Also, the drawings of all the animals are really cute!