TYPES OF ANIMALS AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS

1. MAMMALS
body covered by hair or fur
warm-blooded
have a backbone
produce milk

2. REPTILES
body covered by scales
cold-blooded
have a backbone
most lay hard shelled eggs on land

3. BIRDS
body covered by feathers
warm-blooded
have a backbone
lay eggs

4. INSECTS
most are small air-breathing animals
6 legs
2 antennae
3 body sections (head, thorax, abdomen)
SPIDERS
also termed arachnids
8 legs
8 eyes
they spin webs

5. AQUATIC ANIMALS
most have gills
found in lakes, rivers, and oceans
Mammals

People are mammals. So are dogs, cats, horses, duckbill platypuses, kangaroos, dolphins and
whales. What do all these animals have in common, you ask?

The answer is MILK! If an animal drinks milk when it is a baby and has hair on its body, it belongs
to the mammal class.

Examples are;

DOGS

KANGAROO

Mammals are warm blooded.

The temperature could be freezing cold but not for the Polar bears;

or boiling hot, but still easy to manage for the Camel;

Mammals bodies are built to maintain just about the same temperature all the time. Warm
blood lets the mammals be very active and live in a wide variety of places.

Mammals are everywhere. Polar bears live in very cold areas. Camels live in hot areas.
Moles live under the ground. Bats live in caves and fly in the air. Dolphins live in the oceans.
Fur and fat help protect mammals who live in the cold. Mammals sweat or pant to release
extra heat if they live somewhere toasty.
Birds

Birds are animals that have feathers and that are born out of hard-shelled eggs.

Some people think that what makes an animal a bird is its wings. Bats have wings. Flies
have wings. Bats and flies are not birds. So what makes an animal a bird?

The answer is feathers!

All birds have feathers and birds are the only animals that do. The feathers on a birds wings
and tail overlap. Because they overlap, the feathers catch and hold the air. This helps the
bird to fly, steer itself and land.

What's a bird? Do you know what makes a bird different from other animals? Is it the pretty colors?
No! other animals, like fish and insects, come in all sorts of beautiful colors too.
Is it the bill or beak? No -- other animals, like the duck billed platypus (a mammal), have bills too.
Is it the eggs? No -- other animals, like fish, amphibians, reptiles, insects and even some mammals,
hatch from eggs as well.
Is it the wings? No -- other animals, like insects and some mammals, have wings.
Then what is it!? The answer is Feathers!
All birds have feathers and birds are the only animals that do! Feathers do many jobs for birds. Soft
down keeps them warm, wing feathers allow flight and tail feathers are used for steering. The color of
the feathers can be used to hide the bird or to help the bird find a boyfriend or a girlfriend!

Scientific information: Birds are a scientific "class". The scientific name for the class is Aves.

Examples are;

blue jay

peacock

Eagle
AQUATIC ANIMALS

Fish - are vertebrates that live in water and have gills, scales and fins on their body. There are a lot of
different fish and many of them look very odd indeed. There are blind fish, fish with noses like
elphants, fish that shoot down passing bugs with a stream of water and even fish that crawl onto land
and hop about!

What distinguishes fish from the other animal classes?

Fish are a class of aquatic vertebrates. The combination of gills, fins and the fact that they live only in
the water make fish different from all other animals.

Some fish are beautiful... And some...not so much. Fish spend all of their lives in the water and are
cold-blooded with the exception of Tuna family and the Mackerel shark family. Yes! A seahorse is a
fish also the Lion Fish or Scorpion Fish. Scientists believe that there are more than 24,000
different species of fish in the world. The Whale Shark is the largest member of the fish family.

Examples are;

Whale Shark Clown Fish

Sea Horse Lion Fish

Shark
No, animal classes are not like the classes people have at school!

An animal class is made up of animals that are all alike in important ways. Scientists
have grouped animals into classes to make it easier to study them.

There are many different animal classes and every animal in the world belongs to one
of them.

The five most well known classes of vertebrates (animals with backbones) are
mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians. They are all part of the phylum chordata --
I remember "chordata" by thinking of spinal chord.

There are also a lot of animals without backbones. These are called invertebrates and
are part of the phylum arthropoda (arthropods). Two of the most commonly known
classes in this phylum are arachnids (spiders) and insects.
Examples of Amphibians;

Amphibians are ectothermic, tetrapod vertebrates of the class Amphibia.

frog

Salamander

Caecilian

Diplocaulus

Labyrinthodontia