introduction to animals. write the following vocabulary terms in your journals

Introduction Introduction to Animalsto Animals

Write the following vocabulary terms in your journals.

Now you will learn about the different species of animals and characteristics of each. As we go through each species, fill in the information into your journals.

Species Traits Examples

Mammals

Reptiles

Birds

Fish

Amphibians

Invertebrates

Vertebrates

Classifying AnimalsClassifying AnimalsScientists estimate that

there may be more than five million species of animals on Earth. They classify, or group, animals by how they are alike and different. Sorting animals into groups makes it easier for scientists to study them and compare them to other organisms.

• Mammals• Reptiles• Birds• Fish• Amphibians• Invertebrates• Vertebrates

We are going to learn how animals are grouped or classified by learning about these groups:

• Have teeth• Have hair• Are warm blooded• Have a single jaw bone• Have inner ear bones• Produce milk for their

young

Reptiles

• Have scales• Lay leathery

eggs on land • Are often called

cold-blooded because they can't regulate their own body temperature

InvertebratesOne way scientists group animals is by whether or not they have a backbone. Animals without backbones are in a group called invertebrates.

InvertebratesInvertebrates

VertebratesNinety-five percent of the animals in the world are invertebrates. The other five percent do have backbones. Animals that have backbones are in a group called vertebrates.

VertebratesVertebrates

Body StructuresBody StructuresAnimals have body parts that help them stay alive. Its hard to imagine a polar bear without fur or a fish without fins. A polar bear without fur couldn’t survive the bitter cold of the Arctic. A fish with no fins couldn’t navigate through the water. These structures or parts of an animals body, are adaptations. An adaptation is anything that helps an animal live and reproduce in its environment.

Animal BehaviorsEverything an animal does is part of

its behavior. Animals do some things from the time their life begins. These are the animal’s instincts. Instincts are behaviors that animals are born with. These behaviors are inherited from their parents.

Animal Behaviors: Instinct

A spider knows right away how to spin a web to catch food. Bees hatch knowing how to make honey. Some baby birds, such as ducklings, follow the first animal they see after they are hatched. They instinctively look upon that animal as their parent. Usually the animal they see first is their parent, but ducklings have been known to follow a human or a dog. That is the power of instinct!

Learned BehaviorsLearned behaviors are actions

that are changed by experience. These behaviors are not inherited. All living things have a combination of learned behaviors and inherited instincts. Part of the way they behave they are born with and the other part is what they learn from their environment.

http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/tdc02_vid_deathvall/

Click the following link to see howtwo friends compare two different habitats and the animals that live there.

Using the information that you recordedabout each animal species, create anidea web that compares each species to one another.

BodyStructures

AnimalClassification

AnimalBehaviors