mammalogy

noun

mam·​mal·​o·​gy mə-ˈma-lə-jē 

ma-ˈma-,

-ˈmä- 

: a branch of zoology dealing with mammals

mammalogist

mə-ˈma-lə-jist 

ma-ˈma-

-ˈmä- 

noun

Examples of mammalogy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Kayce Bell, assistant curator of mammalogy at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, studies parasites in chipmunks, including intestinal parasites called pinworms. —Kate Golembiewski, Discover Magazine, 1 Aug. 2024

Academy staffers were able to get close enough via boat for observation and collected blubber samples and measurements, which could be used in case the whale disappeared before it can be moved, said Moe Flannery, ornithology and mammalogy senior collection manager at California Academy of Sciences. —Caelyn Pender, The Mercury News, 22 Apr. 2024

Primatology even exists as a subfield of mammalogy! —Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 15 Feb. 2010

Working with him in the mammalogy lab was a guy quite enthusiastic about voles. —Ned Rozell, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Mar. 2021

A few years ago, Link Olson wanted students in his mammalogy class to see one of the neatest little creatures in Alaska, the northern flying squirrel. —Ned Rozell, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Mar. 2021

Tests swiftly verified that WAM's taxidermied platypuses did indeed glow, which made Kenny Travouillon, the museum's curator of mammalogy, wonder if there might be other unexpected ultraviolet biofluorescence lurking in their collections. —Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Dec. 2020

Chroman teaches a variety of classes at Santa Ana College and the California Naturalist Program through the UC Agricultural and Natural Resources department and specializes in conservation biology, mammalogy, ornithology and ecology. —Jeanette Marantos, Los Angeles Times, 28 Oct. 2020

Further growth of whale watching is questionable, according to Masao Amano, a marine mammalogy professor at Nagasaki University and advisor to the Japan Whale and Dolphin Watching Council. —Rachel Fobar, National Geographic, 15 Mar. 2019

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French mammalogie, by haplology from *mammalologie, from mammal- (base of New Latin Mammalia or French mammalien "mammalian") + -o- -o- + -logie -logy — more at mammal

Note: Perhaps introduced by the French botanist and zoologist Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc (Bosc d'Antic) (1759-1828), who wrote the article Mammalogie in Nouveau dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle, appliquée aux arts, tome 14 (Paris, 1803), pp. 12-23. In regard to the term, Bosc comments that "On nomme ainsi, ou mieux, on doit nommer ainsi, car ce mot n'est pas encore généralement reçu, la science qui a pour objet l'étude des animaux à mamelles ou mammifères, c'est-à-dire des quadrupèdes proprement dits." ("We so designate, or rather we should designate—because this word is not yet generally accepted—the science that has as its object the study of animals with nipples, or mammifers [animals with mammary glands], that is, quadrupeds properly speaking.")

First Known Use

1833, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

mammalogy

noun

mam·​mal·​o·​gy mə-ˈmal-ə-jē  ma-ˈmal- 

-ˈmäl-

plural mammalogies

: a branch of zoology dealing with mammals