Animals in the

Environment
2 subgroups of animals:

1. vertebrates
2. invertebrates
• Both vertebrates and invertebrates
belong to chordates, a group of
animals with notochord or a flexible
rod of cells inside their bodies.
 How are vertebrates and
invertebrates differ from each
other?
• Around 98% of the animals in
the world are invertebrates.

• These are animals found in a

vast of habitats such as forests,
deserts, caves, and seabeds.
• They have nervous system that
helps them respond to the
physical environment through
their instincts.
VERTEBRATES
Small Groups of Vertebrates

• Fish
• Amphibians
• Reptiles
• Birds
• mammals
Fish – are aquatic animals that breathe
through their gills.
- they have skeletons made of their
bones and cartilages.
- they have swim bladder that allows
them to rise and sink in the water
(classified as bony fish).
Amphibians – are cold-blooded
vertebrates.
- Covered with moist skin and lay
eggs in water.
- They have 3 chambered hearts.
Reptiles – are cold-blooded animals
that are covered with scales.
- Their bodies react to the temperature
of the surroundings.
- When they get too warm, they go to
water or under a shade to cool of.
When they get too cold, they hang
out under the sun to warm
themselves up.
Birds – are warm-blooded animals
which means that their bodies keep the
same temperature no matter what the
temperature is around them.
- Their bodies are spindle-shaped and
are covered with feathers.
- They have wings, hollow bones, and
thin skulls which makes their bodies
extremely light for flying.
Mammals – are warm blooded animals
just like birds.
- They have hairy bodies.
- Mother mammals retain their child
in their bodies until they are ready to
be born.
- When youngs are born, mothers feed
them with milk as mammals have
mammary glands.
Types of Mammals

1. Primates
2. Marsupials
3. Rodents
4. Cetaceans
1. Primates
- are the highest order of mammals.
- well-developed brains, hands and feet
with nails and eyes that face forward.
- interact with their own kind of animal
Examples:
orangutans, monkeys, gorillas,
chimpanzees, baboons
- Humans are also primates. There
brains are more than twice the size
of those of other primates.
- Humans walk upright using two
legs.
2. Marsupials
- are mammals that give birth to tiny
helpless living young that crawl into
special abdominal pouch near the
mother’s mammary gland.
Examples:
koalas, wallabies, kangaroos
- The newborn babies suck milk until
they are big enough to leave their
mother’s abdominal pouches.

- Most found in Australia and South

Pacific Ocean
3. Rodents – are mammals that are also
called gnawing animals because of the
way they eat with their large incisors.
Example:
squirrels, porcupines, chipmunks,
beavers (commonly found in North
America)
rabbits, hares, mice
4. Cetaceans – are mostly marine
mammals.
- They live in water but they must come
to the surface to breathe air through their
blowholes, or the nostrils on top of their
heads.
Examples:

whales, dolphins, porpoises

• Seal family – is composed of
mammals such as seals, sea lions, and
walruses.