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Nervous and Sensory Functions of Mammals: Presented By: Miss Saba Saeed

Mammals have complex nervous and sensory systems that allow for advanced behaviors. Their brains have enlarged areas for functions like olfaction, hearing, and vision. Communication is important for behaviors like finding food and mates. Mammals exhibit behaviors such as vocalization, territoriality, and varying social structures. Their sensory abilities and behaviors enhance survival.

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Farryraza
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211 views

Nervous and Sensory Functions of Mammals: Presented By: Miss Saba Saeed

Mammals have complex nervous and sensory systems that allow for advanced behaviors. Their brains have enlarged areas for functions like olfaction, hearing, and vision. Communication is important for behaviors like finding food and mates. Mammals exhibit behaviors such as vocalization, territoriality, and varying social structures. Their sensory abilities and behaviors enhance survival.

Uploaded by

Farryraza
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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NERVOUS AND SENSORY FUNCTIONS OF

MAMMALS

PRESENTED BY: MISS SABA SAEED


NERVOUS SYSTEM OF MAMMALS
 The basic structure of vertebrate nervous system is retained
in mammals
 The development of complex nervous and sensory function
are due to enlargement of cerebral hemisphere and
cerebellum of mammals
 Most integrative function shift to enlarge cerebral cortex
(neocortex).
SENSORY SYSTEM
SENSE OF TOUCH AND OLFACTION

 In mammals, the sense of touch is well developed. Receptors


are associated with the bases of hair follicles and are stimulated
when a hair is displaced.
 Olfaction was apparently an important sense in early mammals,
because fossil skull fragments show elongate snouts, which
would have contained olfactory epithelium.
 Cranial casts of fossil skulls show enlarged olfactory regions.

 Olfaction is still an important sense for many mammals.

 Mammals can perceive olfactory stimuli over long distances


during either the day or night to locate food, recognize members
of the same species, and avoid predators.
AUDITORY SENSES
 Auditory senses were similarly important to early mammals.
 More recent adaptations include an ear flap (the pinna) and the
external ear canal leading to the tympanum that directs sound
to the middle ear.
 The middle ear contains three ear ossicles that conduct
vibrations to the inner ear.
 The sensory patch of the inner ear that contains the sound
receptors is long and coiled and is called the cochlea. This
structure provides more surface area for receptor cells and
gives mammals greater sensitivity to pitch and volume than is
present in reptiles.
 Cranial casts of early mammals show well-developed auditory
regions.
VISION
 Vision is an important sense in many mammals, and eye
structure is similar to that described for other vertebrates.
Accommodation occurs by changing the shape of the lens.
 Color vision is less well developed in mammals than in
reptiles and birds.
 Rods dominate the retinas of most mammals,
which supports the hypothesis that early mammals were
nocturnal.
 Primates, squirrels, and a few other mammals have well
developed color vision.
BEHAVIOR OF MAMMALS

Mammals (from Latin mamma “breast”) are vertebrate


animals consituting the class Mammalia.
 They are characterized by the presence of mammary glands
which in females produce milk for feeding their young, a
neocortex fur or hair, and three middle ear bones.
BEHAVIOR

Mammals have complex behaviors that enhance survival.


Visual cues are often used in communication.
The bristled fur, arched back, and open mouth of a cat
communicate a clear message to curious dogs or other
potential threats.
1. Communication and Vocalization
2. Feeding
3. Intelligence
4. Social Structure
1. COMMUNICATION AND VOCALIZATION

 Many mammals communicate by vocalization.


 Vocal communication serves many purposes, including
mating rituals, as warning calls to indicate food sources, and
for social purposes.
 Auditory and tactile communication are also important in
the lives of mammals.
 Herd animals stay together and remain calm as long as
familiar sounds.
 Vocalize and tactile communication are important in primate
social interactions.
2. FEEDING

 To maintain a high constant body temperature is energy


expensive- mammals therefore need a nutritions and plentiful
diet.
 While the earliest mammals were probably predators,
different species have since adapted to meet their dietary
requirements in a variety of ways.
 Some eat other animals- this is a carnivorous diet. Other
animals called herbivores, eat plants, which contain complex
carbohydrates such as cellulose.
3. INTELLIGENCE

 In intelligent mammals, such as primates, the cerebrum is


larger relative to the rest of the brain.
 Indication of intelligence include the ability to learn,
matched with behavioral flexibility.
 The young ones of many mammalian species recognize
their parents, and parents recognize their young's, by smell.
 They also urinate on their own bellies and under hair to
advertise their reproductive status to females and other
males.
4. SOCIAL STRUCTURE

 Eusociality is the highest level of social organization.


 These societies have an overlap of adult generations, the
division of reproductive labor and cooperative caring of
young.
 Similar displays may allow a male already recognize as being
subordinate to another male to avoid conflict within a social
group.
 Pheromones may also induce sexual behavior, help establish
and recognize territories, and ward off predators
TERRITORIALITY

 Many mammals are defined certain areas from intrusion by


other mammals of the same species.
 When cats rub their face and neck on humans or on
furniture, the behavior is often interpreted as affection.
 Cats, however, are really staking claim to their territory,
using odors from facial scent glands.
 Some territorial behavior attracts females to, and excludes
other males from, favorable sites for mating and rearing
young.
Continue…

• Male California sea lions establish territories on shorelines where


females come to give birth to young.
• For about two weeks, males engage in vocalizations, displays, and
sometimes serious fighting to stake claim to favorable territories.
• Older, dominant bulls are usually most successful in establishing
territories, and young bulls generally swim and feed just offshore.
• When they arrive at beaches, females select a site for giving birth.
• Selection of the birth site also selects the bull that will father next
year’s offspring
EMBRYONIC DIAPAUSE

 Mating occurs approximately two weeks after the birth of


the previous year’s offspring.
 Development is arrested for the three months during
which the recently born young do most of their nursing.
This mechanism is called embryonic diapause.
 Thus, even though actual development takes about nine
months, the female carries the embryo and fetus for a
period of one year.
REFERENCES
• Miller, S.A. and Harley, J.P. Zoology 8th edition, 2010.
McGraw-Hill Publishing.
• Text book of Zoology; Animal diversity: Invertebrates and
chordates by Prof. M. Riaz-ul-Haq. Ramay M.I. Publishers.

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