London Zoo: Mammals are rare as animals go

There are approximately 1.9 million described animal species, and only 6,700 of them are mammals. That’s only about a third of one percent, yet the term animal is sometimes erroneously used as a synonym for mammals, as when someone says, “We saw tons of birds and animals!”

In the context of all known animal species, mammals are relatively rare — far less numerous than many other groups of animals. Animal species are categorized into hierarchical levels of organization. The primary division is into groups called phyla (singular: phylum), and each phylum is further broken down into classes, orders, families, genera, and species. There are around 35 phyla, though a few of them account for a majority of all the species.

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