Animal Kingdom

AMPHIBIANS Frogs, toads, newts and salamanders are amphibians. Amphibians are cold blooded. Amphibians spend part of their lives under water and part of their lives on land. They lay jelly-covered eggs in the water. Amphibians breathe with gills or lungs or through their skin. Baby amphibians live in water and breathe with gills. An amphibian's skin is moist. (They do NOT have scales.) Amphibians are vertebrates -- they have backbones. Most amphibians live in or near water or in damp places.

Many young amphibians do not look like their parents. Young toads, frogs and salamanders are called tadpoles.

REPTILES

Snakes, lizards, turtles, tortoises, alligators and crocodiles are REPTILES Reptiles are alike in the following ways: They have dry, scaly skin. They have short legs or no legs at all. They breathe with lungs. They are cold-blooded. Reptiles are vertebrates -- they have backbones. Most young reptiles hatch from eggs, but not all do. Many snakes have live babies. Young reptiles look like their parents.

Next to mammals, birds are the most useful to man. There are thousands of different kinds of birds. They vary in size from the tiny hummingbird to the large ostrich. Birds A bird is an animal with feathers. Birds have two legs and two wings. Birds have a beak or a bill.

They lay eggs. The young hatch from the eggs. They are warm-blooded. Birds breathe faster than mammals and their bodies are warmer. Only mammals and birds are warm-blooded. GROUPING BIRDS Birds can be grouped by where they live - land birds, water birds, Arctic birds, tropical birds. Birds can be grouped by what they eat - birds that eat insects, birds that eat fruits and seeds, birds that eat meat and fish. Birds can also be grouped according to the shape of their feet, beaks or wings

There are birds that migrate. They fly south in the fall to escape the cold winters. Then they fly north in the spring to their nesting grounds.

Mammals are the most intelligent creatures on earth. They learn to adapt to many different climates and living conditions. Some mammals are tame, some are wild, some are very large and some are small. MAMMALS are alike in these ways: They have fur or hair. The babies drink milk from their mother's bodies. They have a backbone. They have four limbs (arms, legs, flippers).

They are warm-blooded. (Warm-blooded means that their bodies stay at almost the same temperature all the time.) Most mammals are born alive. They breathe air through lungs.

Note: Most baby mammals grow inside their mother and are born alive. There are a few mammals that grow inside an egg in their mother's body. Bears, apes, wolves, the hippopotamus, rodents (rabbit, gopher, chipmunk ), lions, tigers, whales, dolphins and people are all MAMMALS. Some unique mammals are whales and dolphins, bats, the armadillo and the platypus.

 Fish are cold blooded. Fish lay eggs. Most fish are covered with scales. They have fins not legs. Fish live water and breathe through gills.

HOW A FISH BREATHES

The fish takes water into its mouth. The water goes back through the gills. Then the gill cover at the side of the fish's head opens and the water runs out. This intake of water gives the fish oxygen.

If a fish is out of water for a while, it will die because the gills will not work unless the fish is in the water.

Insects
Insects have six legs (when fully grown). The body of an insect is made up of three parts. (head - thorax abdomen ) Each insect has one pair of antennae or feelers. The feelers help the insect find food.

They have their "skeletons" on the outside (like a shell). Insects have one or two pairs of wings. Insects are cold-blooded. They have no lungs, but small openings on their bodies. Insects lay many eggs. Most insects go through a life cycle called metamorphosis. (egg, larva, pupa, adult). The "baby" insect does not look at all like the adult insect. Some insects go through only three changes (like the grasshopper).

Some insects are crickets, ants, wasps, bees, grasshoppers, beetles, dragonflies, butterflies and flies

Tarantula
Habitat: Houses, barns, other buildings. Piles of wood, brush, or trash; cellars. Meadows, gardens

Black widow spider Black and yellow garden spider Spiders are arachnids not insects, spiders and insects belong to the largest group of animals on Earth, the arthropods - animals with hard external skeletons and jointed limbs for walking. Spiders have 8 legs. The first pair is used for holding the prey and feeding. The second pair may also be used for holding and killing their prey. The others are used as legs for walking. Spiders do not have antennae. Most spiders also have 8 eyes. Spiders have fangs that are used to inject poison to paralyze or kill their prey.

Many spiders can produce silk threads to spin webs for catching prey, and for building cocoons for their eggs. The egg sac silk protects the eggs Spiders lay many eggs and make several egg sacs to ensure that enough eggs survive. The eggs of many spiders are glutinous and stick together allowing them to be laid in a continuous stream into the partly built silk egg sac. Some spiders stay with the egg sac, guarding it until the spiderlings emerge or carry the egg sac about with them

Mollusks Habitat: Among rocks and coral reefs near shore; near low-tide line and below in shallow water. Some mollusks live on land, such as the snail and slug. Other mollusks live in water, such as the oyster, mussel, clam, squid and octopus.

Body Most mollusks have a soft, skin-like organ covered with a hard outside shell. Movement Land living mollusks, like the snail, move slowly on a flat sole called a foot. Ocean living mollusks move or swim by jet propulsion. They propel themselves by ejecting water from their body. For example, the squid ejects water from a cavity within its body, and the scallop ejects water to move by clamping its shell closed.Other ocean living mollusks, like the oyster, attach themselves to rocks or other surfaces, and can't move. They feed by filtering small food particles from water that flows through them.

Young Snails and slugs on a muscular "foot." secretes mucus, which silvery "slime trail" that either pest. Slugs and hermaphrodites, so all

move by gliding along This muscle constantly later dries to form the signals the presence of snails are have the potential to lay

eggs. Adult brown garden snails lay about 80 spherical, pearly white eggs at a time into a hole in the topsoil. They may lay eggs up to six times a year. It takes about 2 years for snails to mature. Slugs reach maturity after about 3 to 6 months, depending on species, and lay clear oval to round eggs in batches of 3 to 40 under leaves, in soil cracks, and in other protected areas. octopus examples of are octopuses, snails, squids, and oysters.

slugs,

catfish