All the Mammals
of the World

All the Mammals of the World has two clear antecedents, with which it shares many of its goals, especially that of spreading and promoting interest in mammals worldwide: the Handbook of the Mammals of the World (HMW) series in 9 volumes, the first printed work to cover and fully illustrate all the mammals of the world; and the Illustrated Checklist of the Mammals of the World in two volumes, which updates the taxonomy of the previous publication.

All the Mammals of the World and the Illustrated Checklist in two volumes, however, differ in a number of ways. The fact that the current book is a single volume and costs much less than the Checklist set is one clear difference. By providing a single volume summary and updated taxonomic arrangement of all the world’s mammals, All the Mammals of the World aims to build on the legacy of its predecessors and create a more usable and digestible format for readers with a broader interest in mammalian diversity.

To sum up, for the first time ever, the reader can contemplate every species of mammal in the world in a single, user-friendly, fully illustrated volume—and for a significantly lower cost than even one volume of the other works on the subject. We hope that this new book will reach a large number of people, stimulating and developing their interest in mammals, and that for many of them it will serve as a springboard to develop a passion for the conservation of nature, biodiversity and our planet.

All the Mammals of the World is an innovative and unique book that provides information about each and every living species of mammal, anywhere in the world, building on the legacy of the HMW series and the Illustrated Checklist of the Mammals of the World in a practical and attractive way. Even for those who own any or all the previous works, this new book allows a different type of exploration of mammal diversity. For the first time ever, all the world’s mammals, from the smallest to the largest species, can now be browsed by simply paging through a single-volume book.

Instead of the focus on taxonomy found in the Illustrated Checklist, the current book provides a more general overview of each species, which includes data not given in the Illustrated Checklist, such as length and mass indications to accompany the illustrations and elevational range to complement the distribution summaries and maps.

For those with interest in taxonomy, the book follows the taxonomy of version 1.9 (April 2022) of the Mammal Diversity Database (MDD; www.mammaldiversity.org), which represents a large number of changes since the Illustrated Checklist, including 107 newly described species and 106 split species, all which are treated in the book. The taxonomic changes from the Illustrated Checklist to the current book are covered in an Appendix with a summary of the changes and a discussion of the important cases.

All the Mammals of the World includes a number of species that have been described as new to science based on version 1.9 of the Mammal Diversity Database (MDD; www.mammaldiversity.org), released on 1 April 2022—a cut-off point for applying the taxonomic criteria that was necessary to allow time for processing the data and for the meticulous preparation of the layout.

In all, 107 species newly described since the publication of the Illustrated Checklist (or omitted from it) are included in All the Mammals of the World. This is the case of Schneider’s Marmoset (Mico schneideri), Rice’s Whale (Balaenoptera ricei), the Chingawa Forest Rat (Chingawaemys rarus) or the Medog Mole (Alpiscaptulus medogensis), amongst others.

Recently extinct and domestic species are presented in separate appendices at the end of the book.

The Appendix on Extinct species covers 103 species that have become extinct roughly since 1500 AD, which is the date used by The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species to define “recent” extinctions, and they are currently assigned the threat category of Extinct (EX) on the Red List. In addition to the family classification, each species account includes the Latin and vernacular names of the taxon in English, French, German, and Spanish, as well as a short summary describing when each species went extinct and the factors that contributed to its demise. An accompanying distribution map is included, shaded in a gray crosshatch pattern to indicate its approximate former distribution, along with a short phrase summarizing its former distribution. Illustrations are not included due to the lack of information and resources for many of these extinct species, such as species known exclusively from fossil material.

The Appendix on domestic species deals with 19 domestic species defined taxonomically by the Mammal Diversity Database (MDD; www.mammaldiversity.org). The species, divided by families, are presented with their Latin and vernacular names in English, French, German, and Spanish, as well as information about their domestication, use, and distribution. Maps are not included because domestic species generally share worldwide distributions with humans, and there are no illustrations given the variation within domestic forms (e.g. domestic dogs and cats).

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