Non-human mammalian cell lines play an increasingly important role in medical and biological research. Like human cells, non-human mammalian cells face the problems of misuse, pollution and variation. However, compared with human cells, the authentication of non-human mammalian cell lines has received less attention and has not yet been fully explored. To date, research into the authentication of non-human mammalian cell lines has mainly focused on cell lines from mice, Chinese hamsters, and African green monkeys. The authentication method mainly use short tandem repeat (STR) markers, supplemented by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis. Here, we review the development of the authentication of non-human mammalian cell lines in different species.