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Homeschool Fast Facts!
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| The Animal Kingdom | ||
| The Animal Kingdom or "Kingdom Animalia" is one of five kingdoms that are used to classify living organisms. Taxonomy is the science of classifying plants, animals, and microorganisms. Zoology is the study of animals. Characteristics of Animals: | ||
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| Types of Animals - Vertebrates and Invertebrates | ||
| Animals are classified into groups based on their internal anatomy, patterns of development and genetic makeup. Scientists divided the animal kingdom into two large groups: | ||
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Vertebrates animals with backbone |
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| Vertebrates - animals with backbone - compose about 40,000 species or 2 percent of the animal species. They have highly developed nervous systems and, thanks to their internal skeletons, have become very successful on land, in the sea and air. | ||
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Invertebrates animals without backbone |
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| Invertebrates - animals without backbone - compose the remaining 98 percent of the animal species. Invertebrates, are far more numerous and diverse. The only feature these animals share in common is the lack of a backbone. | ||
| Cold-blooded and Warm-blooded Animals | |
| Vertebrates are divided into cold-blooded and warm-blooded animals. A cold-blooded animal is an animal whose temperature is determined by its surroundings. A warm-blooded animal keeps its body at a constant warm temperature by generating internal heat. | |
| Reptiles, amphibians, and fish are cold-blooded. However, some of these animals can temporarily raise their body temperature by behavioral means such as basking in direct sunshine. |  |
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Mammals and birds are warm-blooded. They generate heat through their metabolic processes and insulating layers of fat, fur, or feathers help retain it. Because of this internal heat source they can remain active even in some of the coldest conditions on earth. |
| Herbivores and Carnivores |
| In general, animals eat plants, other animals, or the remains of living things.
Herbivores or plant-eaters, often do not have to search far to find things to eat. Some herbivores, the termite for example, are entirely surrounded by their food source. The disadvantage of a plant-based diet is that it can be difficult to digest and is often low in nutrients. Most herbivores have tough mouths for chewing and grinding their food. Plant-eating animals have complex digestive systems containing microorganisms that break down the plant substances, turning them into nutrients that the animal can absorb. The lack of nutrients is harder to resolve. Leaf-eating animals, for example, have to feed for many hours each day to obtain the nutrients that they need. |
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| Carnivores or flesh eaters, live on the flesh of other animals and while nutrient-rich and easy to digest it can be difficult to obtain. Finding and capturing this kind of food calls for keen senses such as acute vision or a highly developed sense of smell. Some predators, such as the lion and wolf, increase their chances of success by hunting in groups but most predators use a lie-and-wait strategy. In the lie-and wait strategy, camouflage and other forms of deception such as the use of lures to entice prey within a strike range are employed. Teeth or other mouth parts play a part in catching and subduing food and in preparing it for digestion. Mouth parts include canine teeth in carnivorous mammals, venomous fangs in snakes, and poisonous "harpoons" in some marine mollusks. |
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| Other Feeding Methods | |
| Some animals concentrate on scooping up small food items in large quantities. | |
| On land, animals such as anteaters use their long sticky tongues to lick up ants and termites. In water, animals called filter feeders sieve small animals or food particles from their surroundings. Many of these filter feeders sieve food from the water immediately around them, while others, such as some whales, scoop up their food while on the move and filter it out in their mouths, using specialized gills or plates of a fibrous material called baleen. This feeding technique is extremely efficient, allowing whales to grow to an immense size. |  |
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In another feeding technique, predators seek out food from sources that are much larger than themselves. The predator only eats part of their prey -- usually its blood. Flying insects, such as mosquitoes and horseflies, have pursued this way of life with great success. Fluid diets are much more common in animals that feed on plants. Aphids, cicadas, and other bugs use piercing mouthparts to suck sap from plant stems. Moths, butterflies, hummingbirds, and bats, use probing beaks and tongues to reach nectar in flowers. |
| Some animals use a highly specialized feeding method called parasitism. A parasite lives on or inside other animals and simply siphons off the host's food or, more commonly, feeds on the host itself. External parasites, such as fleas, cling to their hosts. Internal parasites, such as tapeworms and liver flukes, live and feed inside their hosts. |  |
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