Mammals March Madness and slight silliness from your bloggers

It’s time for Mammals March Madness, the tournament in which animals battle for supremacy based on their physiology and behavior, with a little bit of luck thrown in just as you would want in any competition. Note: This is a completely pretend tournament, and absolutely no animals are in any way actually fighting. There are 64 animals going through a tournament of head-to-head match ups based on their fight – and flight – capabilities. This year’s divisions include social, marine, fossil, and “who in the what now”, and there are even a few non-mammal contenders thrown in. Rather than just being passive bystanders, we humans are encouraged to make our best guesses as to who will come out on top. In making your picks, you have to consider where the battle will be fought, and whether the animals are working as individuals or in groups. During the match ups themselves, the contest organizers will tweets facts and fun for the play-by-play. So it’s a wonderful opportunity to learn about cool mammals both in the bracket making and in watching the results unfold.

The tournament started tonight with a wild card game between Australpithecus afarensis versus Australpithecus sediba, but it’s not too late to join in the fun. You can follow along using the #2014MMM hashtag on Twitter, or by checking in for updates on the MMM website. Organized by Harvard’s Katie Hinde, Mammals March Madness had hundreds of participants last year, and looks to have even more this year. We played along last year, but this year we’re going public with our brackets and daring our readers to join in the fun. Anne’s graduate students have taken up the challenge; will you?