A world list of mammalian species

This book is an attempt to present a comprehensive list of all living species of mammals as far as current knowledge allows. Recently extinct species are also included, marked t, if their external appearance is known from preserved specimens, illustrations or descriptions, e.g. the quagga, an extinct zebra from southern Africa. The only other comprehensive lists published in recent years are the International Species Inventory System (ISIS) (see p. 201), which was designed primarily to codify each species for computerized record-keeping in zoos, and the as yet incomplete series of volumes in Russian by Sokolov (see p. 201). Before these we must go back to Trouessart’s Catalogus mammalium published in 1898-99, with a supplement in 1904-5, to find a complete list of the mammalian species then known, although that work was much more ambitious, including fossil as well as living species and providing references to all original descriptions.

The present list has been compiled quite independently of these, using primary taxonomic sources or well documented regional compilations. The bats (order Chiroptera) have been dealt with by J. E. Hill and the remaining orders by G. B. Corbet. Most of the principal sources used have been published during the 1970s and emendments to the list have been made up to October 1979. Further explanation can best be given under the following headings which reflect the layout of the lists.