page_title: Human uses of mammals
section_title: In science
hierarchical_section_title: Human uses of mammals / Practical uses / In science
caption_attribution_description: English: Using drug discrimination assay rats were trained to discriminate antidepressant amitriptyline from saline solution in Skinner box. English: Using drug discrimination assay rats were trained to discriminate antidepressant amitriptyline from saline solution in Skinner box.
context_page_description: Human uses of mammals include both practical uses, such as for food, sport, and transport, and symbolic uses, such as in art and mythology. Mammals have played a crucial role in creating and sustaining human culture. Domestication of mammals was instrumental in the Neolithic development of agriculture and of civilisation, causing farming to replace hunting and gathering around the world, and cities to replace scattered communities.
  Mammals provide dairy products and much of the meat eaten by the human population, whether farmed or hunted. They also yielded leather and wool for clothing and equipment. Until the arrival of mechanised transport, domesticated mammals provided a large part of the power used for work and transport. They serve as models in biological research, such as in genetics, and in drug testing.
  Mammals are the most popular of pets, with tens of millions of dogs, cats and other animals including rabbits and mice kept by families around the world. Mammals such as horses and deer are among the earliest subjects of art, being found in the Upper Paleolithic cave paintings such as at Lascaux.
context_section_description: Mammals serve a major role in science as experimental animals, both in fundamental biological research, such as in genetics, and in the development of new medicines, which must be tested exhaustively to demonstrate their safety. Millions of mammals, especially mice and rats, are used in experiments each year. A knockout mouse is a genetically modified mouse with an inactivated gene, replaced or disrupted  with an artificial piece of DNA. They enable the study of sequenced genes whose functions are unknown. A small percentage of the mammals are non-human primates, including the grivet, the rhesus macaque, and the crab-eating macaque, which are used in research for their similarity to humans.
caption: A laboratory rat in a Skinner box
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