Lynx rufus (Schreber, 1777) - bobcat near Castle Rock, Kansas, USA. (13 June 2013)
Mammals are the dominant group of terrestrial vertebrates on Earth today. The group is defined based on a combination of features: endothermic (= warm-blooded), air-breathing, body hair, mother's milk, four-chambered heart, large brain-to-body mass ratio, two teeth generations, differentiated dentition, and a single lower jawbone. Almost all modern mammals have live birth - exceptions are the duck-billed platypus and the echidna, both of which lay eggs.
Mammals first appear in the Triassic fossil record - they evolved from the therapsids (mammal-like reptiles). Mammals were mostly small and a minor component of terrestrial ecosystems during the Mesozoic. After the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction at 65 million years ago, the mammals underwent a significant adaptive radiation - most modern mammal groups first appeared during this radiation in the early Cenozoic (Paleocene and Eocene).
Three groups of mammals exist in the Holocene - placentals, marsupials, and monotremes. Other groups, now extinct, were present during the Mesozoic.
The bobcat is an uncommon, medium-sized cat that ranges throughout America, Mexico, and southern Canada.
Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Mammalia, Carnivora, Felidae
Locality: above chalk bluffs near Castle Rock, ~24 air-kilometers south-southeast of the town of Quinter, eastern Gove County, western Kansas, USA
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See info. at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobcat
