THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LACTATION IN THE EVOLUTION OF MAMMALS

In this paper I compare the reproductive systems and growth processes of mammals and reptiles and point out how the evolution of lactation and other kinds of parental feeding has made possible the development of complex teeth and jaw mechanisms, rapid growth to maturity and the evolution of social behavior; I also suggest that parental feeding may partly explain why the radiation of mammals and birds was favored by the climatic changes at the Cretaceous/Tertiary transition, which coincided with the extinction of the dinosaurs and other large reptiles. The universal and almost unique feature of mammalian reproduction is the production of secretions by the mother which nourish the offspring after birth, making the juvenile nutritionally dependent on the mother well after it is mechanically independent of her. From the point of view of the mother, the physiology and adaptive significance of lactation is quite different from that of viviparity, and the existence of the Monotremes indicates that the two processes did not necessarily evolve concurrently. In both processes the juvenile obtains all its nourishment from its mother; a free-living, nursing offspring is actually or potentially mechanically separate from its mother, but during pregnancy the two are permanently united. The lactation habit has important consequences upon the morphology, food gathering strategy and energy balance of the mother. The nursing juvenile is required only to

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