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1. Animals
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animals |
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... Animals come in many shapes and sizes. ... Animals walk or crawl on land and dig through the soil. ... Some animals even live inside the bodies of other animals. Bats, dogs, horses, kangaroos, and moles are all animals. ... Many kinds of animals are less than 2. ... Animals are not the only kind of living things. Scientists divide living things into five main kingdoms (groups)--animals, plants, fungi, protists, and prokaryotes. ... Animals are different from other living things in many ways. For example, the bodies of animals are made up of many cells. ... Like animals, plants and fungi also are made up of many cells. However, animals can move around. ... No one knows exactly how many species (kinds) of animals there are. So far, scientists have classified (grouped) and named more than 11/2 million kinds of animals. ... Scientists believe there may be from 2 million to as many as 50 million kinds of animals alive today. Many other kinds of animals used to live on the earth but have died out. ... This article provides general information on animals other than human beings. It includes a classification table and pictures of many animals. Separate World Book articles give details about hundreds of animals. ... ANIMAL/Importance of animals Animals and the web of life. ... Animals eat the plants, or they eat other animals that feed on the plants. When animals die, their bodies decay and release materials that help fertilize the soil for plants. Animals and plants are also connected in other ways. When animals breathe, they take in oxygen from the air and give off carbon dioxide. ... Some seeds are prickly and cling to the fur or feathers of animals. When the animals move from place to place, they take the seeds with them. ... For example, if all the trees in an area are cut down, then many animals that depend on them will die. ... Animals and people. Animals have provided people with food and clothing since prehistoric times. Without animals, people would not have such things as meat, honey, eggs, wool, leather, or silk. At least 10,000 years ago, people began domesticating (taming) animals. Some of these animals provide food and clothing. ... Some domesticated animals help people work. ... Some animals harm people. ... Some animals pass diseases along from person to person. ... Some animals cause disease themselves. ... ANIMAL/Kinds of animals People often divide animals into various groups based on certain similarities the animals share. For example, some animals can be kept as pets, but others are wild. Arranging animals according to their similarities is a handy way of remembering and understanding them. Some common ways of grouping animals. Animals can be grouped in many ways. ... Animals that live on land are known as terrestrial animals. ... Animals that live in water are called aquatic animals. ... Animals can be arranged by the number of legs they have. ... Another way to group animals is according to how they move. ... Some animals are cold-blooded and others are warm-blooded. The bodies of cold-blooded animals are warm when their surroundings are warm and cool when their surroundings are cool. Warm-blooded animals, on the other hand, almost always have the same body temperature, regardless of the warmth of their surroundings. Birds, mammals (animals whose babies drink the mothers milk), and a few species of fish and insects are warm-blooded. All other kinds of animals are cold-blooded. Animals are also commonly divided into groups according to whether they have backbones. ... The vast majority of animals are invertebrates. ... So are amphibians--frogs, salamanders, and other animals that spend part of their lives in water and part on land. The scientific classification of animals involves grouping animals according to the biological relationships among them. This orderly arrangement of animals depends in part on the features the animals share. ... However, the scientific classification of animals is based mainly on the belief that certain animals share a common ancestor. Animals with a more recent common ancestor are more closely related than those who share an ancestor further back in time. ... In classifying animals, zoologists (scientists who study animals) divide them into ever-smaller groups that have more and more features in common. The largest group is the kingdom Animalia itself, which includes all animals. ... Among the animals that scientists have classified are about 13,000 species of flatworms; 50,000 species of clams, oysters, and other molluscs (soft-bodied animals, most of which have a hard shell); 1,000,000 species of insects; 30,000 species of spiders; 21,000 species of fish; 4,000 species of amphibians; 6,500 species of reptiles; 9,700 species of birds; and 4,500 species of mammals. ... A table of animal classification, showing some of the major groups of animals, appears with this article. ... ANIMAL/Where animals live Animals live in many kinds of places. ... Each type of habitat presents a special challenge to animals. For example, animals that live in polar regions must withstand bitter cold. ... In spite of these challenges, animals can be found everywhere on the earth. ... Each habitat supports many kinds of animals. In most cases, the animals are the same kinds that have lived in those surroundings for thousands of years. As a result, the animals have developed bodies and ways of life that suit them to that particular habitat. ... However, some animals may travel between habitats from time to time. ... But these animals would not be able to withstand the freezing temperatures of the polar regions. ... The destruction of these habitats usually causes the death of many animals. ... Without these necessities, some animals will die immediately. ... As a result, many more animals will die. This section tells about some of the major animals, grouped according to seven types of habitats: (1) mountains, (2) grasslands, (3) temperate forests, (4) tropical forests, (5) deserts, (6) polar regions, and (7) oceans. For descriptions animals grouped according to the continent on which they live, see the articles on AFRICA; ANTARCTICA; ASIA; AUSTRALIA; EUROPE; NORTH AMERICA; SOUTH AMERICA. Animals of the mountains Mountains support a variety of animal life. The numbers and kinds of animals found on mountains vary with altitude. More animals and more kinds of animals live at lower altitudes than at higher ones, largely because of the differences in climate between elevations. ... In addition, fewer plants are found at higher elevations, and therefore less food is available for animals. |
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