Hispaniola, an island of the Greater Antilles, has, perhaps, the least studied mammalian fauna in the area; in the sense of this particular science, its history appears scattered and, at first sight, sparse. A review of its more than 500 years demonstrates a rich and varied scientific history, with obvious periods of development and research. In its beginnings, the advance of mammalogy was determined by navigators, explorers, and foreign researchers, who, with their scientific work, through observations and collections, were able to document the mammalian fauna, leaving us this knowledge as a legacy passed down through the years. The middle of the twentieth century marked a milestone in local research, with the creation of the School of Biology of the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, from which the first Dominican mammalogists emerged, men who would later be considered the fathers of modern-day mammalogy for their contributions to the documentation and research of living and fossilized mammals.