Education

There are an infinite variety of different animal species on planet Earth. In order to understand them, it is worth studying the classification, which includes types, classes and orders. The species are the last rung of division, and therefore their number is so great. It is better to take several basic types of animals, which are much smaller. It will be much more convenient to study the species included in them.

Sponges

For a long time, these animals were considered plants. Science has studied their structure quite recently. The type of sponges includes a wide variety of animal species. Their examples can be listed for a very long time. Representatives always live in the aquatic environment, but outwardly they differ in a very impressive way. The sponges may look like expressionless growths, cakes, twigs, or lumps. The glass appearance of these animals looks incredibly beautiful and is a real masterpiece of nature - the so-called Venus basket or sea orange seem delicate and translucent.
They also have common features - for example, the lips hardly move. Nevertheless, each species is able to get food without any problems - by passing impressive volumes of water through the body, microorganisms from which are the diet of these bizarre creatures. But the most interesting thing is that the coincidence of the name of these animals with the name of household accessories for washing or cleaning is not accidental: earlier for this purpose they used living sponges, which are good for the skin and can be very gentle to the touch.

Coelenterates

So, listing the types of animals, the examples should be divided into categories according to their main types. Next - coelenterates, low-organized creatures, whose bodies consist of only two layers of cells. All of their species, with a few exceptions, live in the aquatic environment. For example, it is a hydroid eudendrium, a coral acropora or a siphonophore fizophora. Each of these species has a unique appearance - some look like small trees, while others resemble bird feathers. They are united by their habit of living in colonies and the structure of the body - as the name implies, the only body cavity is the intestines. All species can be divided into two groups: these are polyps that are located in a certain place, or jellyfish, which can be mobile.

Related Videos

Worms

When listing the species of animals, the list of which is very long, it is worth mentioning this type. Worms can be flat, annelid, and round. All these species are united by a structure of several layers of cells - ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm. Worms have no body cavities; the body consists of a parenchyma, which performs all the necessary functions. However, there is also a difference between these species. Flatworms have a brain stem, roundworms have only a few longitudinal and periopharyngeal nerve rings, and annelids have an abdominal nervous system. In addition, the latter have a closed circulatory system, which others do not.

Molluscs

It's not just primitive animal species that are worth studying. The classification also includes much more developed organisms, for example, molluscs. This is the type that includes the maximum number of species. These are organisms that live in the sea (oysters, octopuses, mussels, squids), fresh water (toothless, live-bearers, pond snails) or in moist soil (snails, slugs). Shellfish sizes different types very different, they can be very tiny (only a few millimeters) or reach more than twenty meters in length. Many are sedentary, but some are reactive. These are squid and similar animal species. The classification of molluscs also includes variants such as cephalopods, bivalves, and gastropods. Some have a shell, consisting of several layers (horny and calcareous), but many have lost it in the course of evolution. It unites all these types of animals, the names of which, by the way, include snails and squids, the structure of the digestive system. It consists of three sections with the anterior, middle and posterior intestines. Some individuals are distinguished by a muscular tongue with teeth, while others feed passively, simply filtering food from the water suspension with gills. In all species, the circulatory system is open and includes vessels and a heart with several atria and a ventricle. Aquatic organisms breathe with gills, terrestrial ones - with their lungs. The excretory system is represented by the kidneys, and the nervous system is represented by scattered nodes with several large ganglia.

Arthropods

Listing the various species of animals, the list cannot be completed without mentioning these organisms. Arthropods are centipedes, scorpions, spiders, and crayfish. As a rule, these are bilaterally symmetrical animals with a body divided into segments. The body is covered with a cuticle made of chitin, which serves as the outer skeleton and protection for the body. Since this category includes a variety of animal species, examples of the respiratory system can be diametrically opposed - these are both the lungs and the gills. All representatives have an open circulatory system. The shape of the body can be varied. As a rule, the body consists of several segments: the head, chest and abdomen - all these types of animals have them. Examples, however, include some variations: in spiders, the head and chest are combined with the abdomen, and in ticks, it is almost impossible to distinguish segments at all.

Chordates

The most common and well-known species of animals, photos of which everyone has seen, belong to this type. It is the highest and assumes the presence of a skeletal axis, a neural tube. The type includes three main types of organisms: tunicates, cranials and vertebrates. The first species of animals, examples of which are much less known than the second, most often live in the aquatic environment and settle in colonies. They have barrel-shaped or sac-like bodies, a ganglion nervous system, and underdeveloped sense organs. Such organisms include the following types: ascidians, appendiculars, pyrosomes and others. These creatures breed different ways, feed on algae, small animals, detritus. Interestingly, the adult form is simplified, but the larvae are much more active and differ in developed sense organs. Cranials do not have a separate head, which determines their name. They breathe with gills and do not have too many representatives, the most famous is the lancelet. Finally, vertebrates are the most famous and developed group of animals. It includes all types of mammals, fish, birds, amphibians and reptiles. This type has developed since prehistoric times. At the moment, man knows about fifty thousand species of vertebrates.

Comments (1)

Similar materials

Education
Animal migration: examples, reasons, types. Why do animals migrate?

Do you know why animal migration occurs? Grade 7 learns about this in biology lessons. And even then, during the acquaintance with the secrets of biological science, the consciousness of children begins to be taught to understand the ordinary fact ...

Business
Connections: purpose, types of connections. Examples, advantages, disadvantages of types of connections

Machines and machine tools, equipment and Appliances- all these mechanisms have many details in their design. Their high-quality connection is a guarantee of reliability and safety during work. What types of connections ...

Business
Charity is ... Types and examples of charity

It so happened that in the world there is a fairly clear division of people into the poor and the rich. This is due to many factors, including employment of the population, economic development of the country and others.

Business
Valuation of fixed assets. Valuation types and classification

In a market economy, each company owns a certain property. Without this, the company would not be able to produce goods or provide services. As part of the non-current part of assets, fixed assets are ...

Business
Assortment: assortment types and classification

Products collected in a group, which is formed in accordance with their similarity in one or more characteristics, are called "assortment".

Business
The main types of lumber, characteristics, classification and scope

Today, almost any branch of the national economy uses wood products for different purposes. This is explained unique properties of this material. Synthetic products are not yet capable of replacing it. So ...

Business
What is outsourcing in simple terms? Outsourcing: definition, meaning, types and examples

One of good ways to improve the efficiency of the work process and to achieve greater efficiency from the personnel, the principle of division of labor is recognized. True, not all enterprises can afford to create a large staff of narrow ...

Business
Wear. Wear types and classification

Every person has long known that everything around has a tendency to wear out. This applies to both buildings and any equipment. Moreover, it is necessary to replace equipment and real estate items not only when they ...

Business
IP activities - classification and description

Individual entrepreneurs have the rights and civic obligations that are necessary to conduct various types of activities, if they are not prohibited by law. Certain types of IP activities require a license ...

Business
Types of production processes. Classification.

At the heart of any kind of industrial activity is the production process. It represents the associated stages of transformation of the product of labor (materials, raw materials) into the final product, which is the purpose of production….

Linnaeus admitted that within each species of animals and plants, very wide differences in a number of characteristics are possible: in growth, color of fur, etc. Therefore, for some species it is necessary to admit the existence of so-called "subspecies" or "varieties".

However, Linnaeus argued that each species is sharply different from others, even those close to him.

Section: Wild animals

He considered it completely impossible to allow the transition from one species of animals to another. According to Linnaeus, species are permanent, and there are as many of them as God created them. According to Linnaeus, one species of animals or plants should include all those individuals that "are similar to each other, like children to their parents, and are able to reproduce when mating with each other."

As you can see, Linnaeus did not want to deviate in any way from the biblical theory of the immutability and constancy of species, and therefore all his vast knowledge of the scientist sought to subordinate the requirements of religion. But all his efforts invariably met with a number of difficult to resolve contradictions. So, his definition of the species did not fit the fact known to every farmer that such, undoubtedly, different types of domestic animals, such as a horse and a donkey, are capable of interbreeding with each other and give mules in the offspring. Therefore, Linnaeus and his followers had to introduce an additional definition that the offspring from individuals of the same species must be fertile. From different species, if it is possible to get offspring, then it will certainly be sterile (for example, a mule).

Soon, however, it turned out that this additional requirement of Linnaeus did not save the situation, for by now we know dozens of facts that indicate that in many cases, as a result of the crossing of obviously different, isolated, according to Linnaeus, species of animals and plants, they not only reproduce well, but also give fertile offspring. Many similar cases are known for various species of wild ducks and geese; similar cases of the birth of fertile offspring can be observed when various species of wild deer are crossed. Various types of wild sheep, etc., easily interbreed with each other and give fertile offspring.

Especially many examples of the fertility of offspring obtained from crossing parents, descending from clearly different species, are known in the plant world.

If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.

In contact with

classmates

Diversity of the animal world

We are surrounded by a huge world of living beings - plants, animals, microorganisms - forming various combinations in different parts our planet. Both the species themselves and their complexes - biocenoses - arose long before the appearance of man as a biological species. With each epoch in the history of the Earth, this world has changed more and more. The first primitive groups of organisms were replaced by new, morphophysiologically advanced groups with broader evolutionary potentials, and this continues as long as life exists on Earth. All this is the result of organic evolution, which can be called in one word - biodiversity.

Biodiversity is hundreds of thousands of species, and the diversity within the populations of each species, and the diversity of biocenoses, that is, at every level, from genes to ecosystems, there is diversity. This phenomenon has long been of interest to humans. First, out of simple curiosity, and then quite consciously and often for practical purposes, a person studies his living environment. This process has no end, since with each century new tasks arise and the ways of understanding the composition and structure of the biosphere change. They are solved by the whole complex of biological sciences.

The study of the diversity of the organic world of our planet became especially relevant after the role of diversity itself in maintaining the stability of the biosphere began to be clarified. Its resources, which seemed unshakable and inexhaustible, turned out to be so disturbed for a short time that it began to cause justified alarm of mankind. Increasing pressure economic activity people to the biosphere, direct, although sometimes unconscious destruction of many species of plants and animals, changes in the habitat of other species can ultimately lead to catastrophic consequences.

Therefore, the increased interest in the study of the role of biodiversity in the stability of the biosphere, from which a person obtains resources for his existence, is understandable. Sustainable use of natural resources is a reasonable use of the gene pool of plants and animals in combination with its long-term preservation, this goal can be achieved only with a clear understanding of the processes taking place in the biosphere, connections and interdependencies between the components of ecosystems, and above all from the knowledge of the diversity that surrounds us.

All animals, like other living organisms, have been grouped by scientists into systematic groups on the basis of kinship. The smallest of them is the species. All white hares living in the taiga, mixed forests or tundra belong to the same species - the white hare.

Division of animals into groups: types, classes, orders, genera and species

A species in zoology is a set of animals that are similar to each other in all essential signs of structure and life, living in a certain territory and capable of producing fertile offspring. Each animal that has only its inherent structural and behavioral features is called an individual. Similar species are grouped into genera, genera - into families, families - into orders. Larger systematic groups of animals - classes, types.

The study of the species richness of the animal world of our planet has a long history, but only in 1758 the famous scientist Carl Linnaeus listed all the animals known at that time, giving them their own Latin names. For more than two centuries that have passed since the publication of the tenth edition of Linnean's "System of Nature", our knowledge of the animal world of the Earth has grown immeasurably and continues to grow at a rapid pace. Although the process of studying the faunas of various parts of the globe is far from complete, the results of this study can already be presented.

In the literature, you can also find predictive data on the number of animal species in the world. So, many believe that after the completion of work on the study of the species composition of insects, there will be more than 1.5 million species. The same applies to roundworms and some other classes of animals. But even so, their species richness is literally overwhelming. As you might expect, the number of animal species in different parts of the world is not the same. In the direction from the lowland areas of the tropical zone to high latitudes and high altitudes of mountain ranges, a decrease in diversity is clearly manifested. This phenomenon is called the main gradient of diversity. As a rule, this concerns not only the general diversity of the animal world, but also the number of species of specific taxa - orders, families, genera - in the faunas of tropical and temperate zones of the Earth.

We are used to talking about the luxurious nature of the tropics and its poverty in the north. But it’s not that simple. Many theories or hypotheses have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of biological diversity. If biological diversity is generally the result of evolution, then why did evolution take place at such different rates in the tropics and beyond the Arctic Circle, on the plains and in the highlands, in shallow waters and in the deep depressions of the World Ocean? Many attempts have been made to elucidate the causal relationships between biodiversity and environmental factors.

Factors affecting biodiversity

Depending on how environmental factors act on organisms - through the physical environment alone, through the physical and biotic environment, or only through one biotic environment, these factors or mechanisms are divided into primary, secondary and tertiary. Of course, the mechanisms themselves are not independent and operate in a coordinated and consistent manner. For some organisms, some factors are more important, for others, others. Let's consider briefly the hypotheses that explain biodiversity.

It has long been believed that the diversity of the animal world increases with the age of the communities in which the species live. That is, evolutionary time is called the first in a series of reasons affecting diversity. In temperate zones, especially in the northern hemisphere, habitats are poor in species, since due to Quaternary glaciation and other geological disturbances, animal species had too little time to adapt and fully develop their habitat. In the tropics, however, communities are highly diverse, since they did not experience external influences for a long time and evolution proceeded unhindered, which led to species richness. This hypothesis is similar to another one, which takes into account the time required for the dispersal of species, but not for speciation, that is, the shorter ecological time. The following example gives us some idea of ​​this. If we are dealing with a recently arisen site of the forest burnt type, then its species composition is poor because there was simply not enough time for it to populate with species from neighboring habitats. Classic example This kind is shown by the history of the settlement of animals on the island of Krakatoa after the catastrophic eruption of the volcano, which destroyed all life on the island in 1883. It took only 50 years for the new fauna to form, but this fauna turned out to be much poorer than the previous one, despite the fact that the island is located in the tropical zone and the distance to the nearest islands is very small.

The most common of all hypotheses is considered to be the one that connects species richness with climate stability, that is, with its insignificant seasonal fluctuations. This is exactly the climate of the tropics, especially the equatorial zone. An environment with a stable climate favors specialized species that occupy narrow ecological niches. Recall that an ecological niche is a reflection of the place occupied by an organism or a species in a community, and this concept includes, in addition to resistance to physical environmental factors, interactions with other organisms. This means that more species can fit in one area that are not competing due to the available resources. We add that in areas with a stable climate, the primary (plant) production of ecosystems is also stable and large, which ensures the coexistence of a larger number of species than in areas with unstable productivity.

The complexity of the habitat structure is also important. For many groups of animals, in particular for birds, spatial heterogeneity plays a primary role. This can be seen at least from the fact that more bird species live in the forest (multi-tiered structure) than in the meadow. For marine animals living in the intertidal zone, where the bottom consists of particles of different sizes, there are more species of invertebrates than in the same shallow water with a uniform muddy bottom. Thus, there is a correlation between the structural complexity of the habitat and the species diversity of the fauna.

Species diversity can be determined by the productivity of habitats. In more productive habitats, food is more abundant and diversified; therefore, there are also more opportunities for consumer specialization than in less productive habitats. Many ecologists assign an important role in the formation of species-rich communities to such a biotic mechanism as competition. Charles Darwin pointed out the role of competition as a driving force of the process of speciation. Competition leads to divergence in ecological niches, and specialized species have narrow niches, which contributes to the emergence of high diversity. Interspecies competition is particularly intense in communities such as tropical rainforests. It is they who are distinguished by the highest biological diversity and small sizes of species populations. It is known that 1 hectare of such a forest can grow from 50 to 100 species of trees. The high diversity of plants, in turn, favors the development of a diversity of animals, especially birds and insects, while many species are rare and the number of individuals of one species is small.

Finally, researchers of biodiversity problems assign an important place among its mechanisms to predation. This mechanism consists in the fact that predators feed on the prey that have the greatest abundance in a given area, that is, the most common, so-called background species. In this case, predators act as a rarefaction factor. Therefore, they make possible the local coexistence of species, weakening the competition between them and leading to the multiplication of a variety of victims.

In all likelihood, none of the environmental factors taken separately can explain the reason for the diversity of species in a particular landscape zone of the globe. Recently, a special discussion of the correlation between climate and diversity was devoted to a work based on a comparison of the number of species of some groups of insects on the territory of the Russian Plain. The authors came to the conclusion that the problem of the conjugation of climate and biodiversity is still at the descriptive stage of study. In addition, they believe that the evidence base to link biota responses to global warming is still insufficient. The last statement is important in the sense that it casts doubt on the statements of many ecologists who talk about the global consequences of the warming of the planet's climate caused by human activities.

The studies on the basis of which these or those hypotheses were proposed were carried out on various groups of animals with different requirements for the environment. As a result, the conclusions of the authors often do not coincide. Different groups of organisms have different correlations of diversity with vegetation structure, environmental stability, moisture conditions, etc. Therefore, diversity is the result of contradictions, a compromise between the genetically inherent potential for shaping and the resources of the environment. In a general sense, we can say that evolution is directed towards increasing diversity. The evolution of diversity is a self-moving process, it creates the preconditions for the further evolution of diversity, so it can be argued that diversity generates diversity according to the principle of feedback.

How many animal species are there on Earth?

One million, ten million, fifty? We don't know that. More than a million living creatures have been scientifically described, named and cataloged. This includes almost all large, visible and accessible representatives of the fauna - birds, mammals and reptiles.

Judging by the number of "new" insects discovered annually, we know only a small part of their total number. In some collections gathered under the canopy of the tropical jungle, about 90% of insect species were previously unknown to science. Therefore, according to the estimates of a number of scientists, insects alone can number up to 50 million species, plus a myriad of mollusks, worms, crustaceans and similar small living creatures.

Compared to this wealth, 40 thousand species of vertebrates - fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, including you and me - make up more than a modest part of the animal world. This is clearly seen in the systematization of animals into groups with similar characteristics, each of which is called a type. There are 32 types of animals in total, and vertebrates make up only a small part of one of them. All other types encompass a striking variety of living things, from plant-like sponges to intellectual octopuses. We know many of them by their names at best.

Applying new collection methods or exploring previously neglected sites can also result in a sudden jump in the number of new species. In recent decades, the interstitial fauna of the sea coasts (animals living among grains of sand in the intertidal zone) has turned out to be such a "gold mine". Not so long ago, completely unexpected discoveries were accidentally made, which turned out to be sensational, at least for zoologists. This is, of course, not about Bigfoot or sea monsters. In 1938, coelacanth was caught - the first living representative of the cross-finned fish considered extinct about 70 million years ago, from which amphibians originated. Extinct even earlier; in the Devonian, the class of mollusks Monoplacophora was also considered interesting in that imprints of places to which muscles were attached were found on their shells. This indicates an elementary segmentation of their body and, according to some scientists, indicates a connection between mollusks and annelids. And since 1952, we have known these animals not only in the form of fossils. They still live today! Representatives of the genera Neopilina and Vema were found in the Pacific Ocean at a depth of several thousand meters. True, the alleged relationship with annelids has not yet been confirmed.

Somewhat later, another sensation: for the first time they found gastropods with a bivalve shell. It was tempting to see them as a link between gastropods and bivalve molluscs. But this assumption was not confirmed. Meanwhile, two more species of these unusual snails were discovered. They were found not in hard-to-reach sea depths, but in shallow waters - off the coast of Japan and Australia, in the Gulf of California and off the island of Jamaica. As you can see, the history of zoological discoveries on Earth is not over. Researchers of mammals can still hope for luck - just recently, in 1938, it was described the new kind whales, tasmans beaked. Then the sea suddenly threw several animals ashore. Yet in small and already well-studied groups, such discoveries are very rare.

In the classes of birds and mammals, the number of species has even decreased. This happened not so much due to extinction, but due to the fact that over time, scientists abandoned too fractional division and many species were combined. Thus, the total number of known and not yet known species animals is, apparently, two, or even three million. Incredible variety! But this is only a small fraction of the species that arose and disappeared in the process of evolution. Some once dominant groups of animals, at one time so numerous that scientists determine the age of geological strata from their fossil remains, have completely died out. From others, also in the past, reaching a significant heyday, for example, brachiopods, only miserable crumbs have survived. But even in such ancient classes as crustaceans, insects, fish, and even in relatively young classes of birds and mammals, the number of extinct species is much greater than the number of our "contemporaries".

The distribution of animals on land, in fresh water bodies and seas is extremely uneven. The sea is the cradle of life; the earliest stages of the evolution of the animal world took place here. Many ancient groups never found their way to land or freshwater. This applies to the cephalopods, echinoderms and tunicates that thrive in the seas to this day, as well as some small surviving groups and many extinct branches of the animal kingdom. But, despite the vast expanses of the oceans, it would be a gross mistake to conclude that the number of marine species exceeds the number of freshwater or terrestrial ones.

Millions of years that have passed since their inception, and the relative constancy of environmental conditions, it would seem, allowed marine animals to exist much longer and opened up unlimited space for development for them. But no! It is thanks to these circumstances that the number of species in the sea is relatively small: the constancy of conditions over a large area and for a long time contributes to the preservation, rather than fragmentation of any group of animals. The huge number of species of land animals is the result of the most diverse conditions of their existence. It is surprising and little understood why for insects that have adapted to the most incredible land conditions, the way back to the sea turned out to be inaccessible. On any coasts, except perhaps the coldest ones, we will find many species of insects, but they are not in the seawater. True, in the open sea you can find the bugs Halobatidae, reminiscent of the water striders from our puddles and ponds. They also rush along the surface of the water, but that's all. Spiders also did not become real sea inhabitants, although some of them settled in coral reefs.

Of course, there are species that differ little in their requirements for environment... However, as a rule, such differences are still expressed quite clearly. The very fact of the existence of many specialized species indicates that animals were able to adapt to almost any food and any climatic conditions within the boundaries determined by the biochemical laws of the organism. As a result of this process, which lasted hundreds of millions of years, animals populated the globe from pole to pole. They withstand the snowstorms of the long polar night, live in subpolar water bodies and the depths of the sea at temperatures around 0 ° C. Life does not stop even in hot springs, where the water temperature reaches and sometimes exceeds 50 ° C. However, in most animals, even at temperatures slightly below 50 ° C, the enzymatic systems break down and the proteins are irreversibly changed. It seems to us unbearable heat, which the animals of the steppes and deserts can withstand, which are located directly on the surface of the soil, because it heats up much more strongly than the air. True, many desert dwellers leave their underground shelters only at night or in the evening.

The fauna is great and diverse. Animals are animals, but the adults decided to divide them all into groups in accordance with some criteria. The science of classifying animals is called taxonomy or taxonomy. This science determines the relationship between organisms. The degree of kinship is not always determined by external similarity. For example, marsupial mice are very similar to common mice, and tupai mice are very similar to squirrels. However, these animals belong to different orders. But armadillos, anteaters and sloths, completely different from each other, are united into one detachment. The fact is that family ties between animals are determined by their origin. By examining the structure of the skeleton and the dental system of animals, scientists determine which animals are closest to each other, and paleontological finds of ancient extinct animal species help to establish more accurately the relationship between their descendants.

Types of multicellular animals: sponges, bryozoans, flat, round and annelids (worms), coelenterates, arthropods, molluscs, echinoderms and chordates. Chordates are the most progressive type of animals.

Kingdom of Animals and their classification (Scheme, Table)

They are united by the presence of a notochord - the primary skeletal axis. The most highly developed chordates are united into a subtype of vertebrates. Their chord is transformed into a spine. The rest are called invertebrates.

Types are divided into classes. There are 5 classes of vertebrates in total: fish, amphibians, birds, reptiles (reptiles) and mammals (animals). Mammals are the most highly organized animals of all vertebrates.

Classes can be subclassed. For example, in mammals, subclasses are distinguished: viviparous and oviparous. Subclasses are divided into infraclasses, and then into detachments... Each squad is divided into families, families - on childbirth, childbirth - on views... A species is the specific name of an animal, for example, a white hare.

The classifications are approximate and change all the time. For example, now lagomorphs have been taken out of rodents into an independent detachment.

In fact, those groups of animals that study in primary school- these are types and classes of animals, mixed together.

The first mammals appeared on Earth about 200 million years ago, separating from animal-like reptiles.

Search Lectures

The diversity of the animal world

The wildlife around us in all its diversity is the result of a long historical development organic world on Earth, which began almost 3.5 billion years ago. The biological diversity of living organisms on our planet is great. Each species is unique and unrepeatable. For example, there are more than 1.5 million species of animals. However, according to some scientists, only in the class of insects there are at least 2 million species, the vast majority of which are concentrated in the tropical zone. The number of animals of this class is also great - it is expressed in numbers with 12 zeros. And different unicellular planktonic organisms only in 1 m3 of water can be up to 77 million individuals.

Rainforests are characterized by a particularly high biological diversity. The development of human civilization is accompanied by an increase in anthropogenic pressure on the natural communities of organisms, in particular the destruction of the greatest tracts of forests in the Amazon, which leads to the extinction of a number of species of animals and plants, to a decrease in biodiversity.

A special science - systematics - helps to understand all the diversity of the organic world. Like a good collector, according to a certain system, classifies the objects he collects, a taxonomist classifies living organisms on the basis of signs. Every year scientists discover, describe and classify all new types of plants, animals, bacteria, etc. Therefore, taxonomy as a science is constantly evolving. So, in 1914 a representative of an then unknown invertebrate animal was described for the first time, and only in 1955 the Russian zoologist A.V. Ivanov (1906-1993) substantiated and proved his belonging to a completely new type of invertebrates - pogonophores.

Development of taxonomy (creation of artificial classification systems). Attempts to classify organisms were undertaken by scientists in ancient times. The outstanding ancient Greek scientist Aristotle described over 500 species of animals and created the first classification of animals, dividing all the animals known then into the following groups 1: [Animals without blood: soft-bodied (corresponds to cephalopods); soft shell (crustaceans); insects; cranial (shell molluscs and echinoderms).

II. Animals with blood: viviparous tetrapods (corresponds to mammals); birds; oviparous tetrapods and legless (amphibians and reptiles); viviparous legless with pulmonary respiration (cetaceans); scaled legless, gill-breathing (fish).

By the end of the 17th century. a huge amount of material was accumulated about the diversity of forms of animals and plants, which required the introduction of the concept of the species; for the first time this was done in the works of the English scientist John Ray (1627-1705). He defined a species as a group of morphologically similar individuals and tried to classify plants based on the structure of vegetative organs. However, the famous Swedish scientist Karl Linnaeus (1707-1778), who in 1735 published his famous work "The System of Nature", is rightfully considered the founder of modern taxonomy. Linney took the structure of the flower as the basis for the classification of plants. He combined closely related species into genera, similar genera into detachments, detachments into classes. Thus, he developed and proposed a hierarchy of systematic categories. In total, scientists have identified 24 classes of plants. To designate the species, K. Linney introduced a double, or binary, Latin nomenclature. The first word means the name of the genus, the second - the species, for example Sturnus vulgaris. On different languages the name of this species is spelled differently: in Russian - common starling, in English - common starling, in German - Gemeiner Star, in French - etourneau sansonnet, etc. Common Latin names of species make it possible to understand who is in question, facilitate communication between scientists from different countries. In the animal system, K. Linney identified 6 classes: Mammalia (Mammals). He placed man and apes in one detachment of Primates; Aves (Birds); Amphibia (Reptiles, or Amphibians and Reptiles); Pisces (Pisces); Insecta (Insects); Vermes (Worms).

The emergence of a natural classification system. The system of K. Linnaeus, despite all its indisputable advantages, was inherently artificial. It was built on the basis of external similarities between different kinds plants and animals, and not on the basis of their true relationship. As a result, completely unrelated species fell into the same systematic groups, but close ones were separated from each other. For example, Linnaeus considered the number of stamens in plant flowers as an important systematic trait. As a result of this approach, artificial groups of plants were created. So, viburnum and carrots, bells and currants fell into one group only because the flowers of these plants have 5 stamens each. Linnaeus placed plants of various types of pollination in one class of monoecious: spruce, birch, duckweed, nettle, etc. However, despite the shortcomings and errors in the classification system, the works of K. Linney played a huge role in the development of science, allowing scientists to navigate the variety of living organisms.

The modern classification system can be represented in the form of the following scheme: empire, super-kingdom, kingdom, sub-kingdom, type (department - for plants), subtype, class, detachment (order - for plants), family, genus, species. For extensive systematic groups, additional intermediate systematic categories have also been introduced, such as superclass, subclass, superorder, suborder, superfamily, subfamily. For example, the classes of cartilaginous and bony fish are combined into a superclass of fish. In the class of bony fish, subclasses of ray-finned and lobe-finned fish, etc.

Previously, all living organisms were divided into two kingdoms - Animals and Plants. Over time, organisms were discovered that could not be attributed to any of them. Currently, all organisms known to science are divided into two empires: Precellular (viruses and phages) and Cellular (all other organisms).

Precellular life forms. There is only one kingdom in the precellular empire - viruses. They are non-cellular life forms that can penetrate and multiply in living cells.

Classification

For the first time, science learned about viruses in 1892, when the Russian microbiologist D.I. Ivanovsky (1864-1920) discovered and described the tobacco mosaic virus - the causative agent of tobacco mosaic disease. Since that time, a special branch of microbiology has emerged - virology. Distinguish between DNA-containing and RNA-containing viruses.

Cellular life forms... The Empire of Cellulars is divided into two super-kingdoms (Prenuclear, or Prokaryotes, and Nuclear, or Eukaryotes). Prokaryotes are organisms whose cells do not have a formed (limited by a membrane) nucleus. The kingdom of the Drobyanki belongs to prokaryotes, which includes half the kingdom of Bacteria and Blue-green (Cyanobacteria). Eukaryotes are organisms whose cells have a formed nucleus. These include the kingdoms of Animals, Mushrooms and Plants.

In general, the empire of the Cellular consists of four kingdoms: Drobyanka, Mushrooms, Plants and Animals.

Control questions

1. What is the essence of the idea of ​​spontaneous generation of life?

2. How did L. Pasteur prove the inconsistency of the theory of spontaneous generation of organisms?

3. Describe the main idea of ​​the theory of chemical evolution of AI Oparin.

4. Give a brief description of the main stages of the emergence of life on Earth according to the theory of J. Bernal.

5. What class of modern animals is represented by the largest number of species?

6. What are the main tasks of taxonomy?

7. Why is Karl Linnaeus considered the founder of modern taxonomy?

8. What is the main merit of Charles Darwin in taxonomy?

9. What is the main difference between prokaryotes and eukaryotes?

© 2015-2018 poisk-ru.ru
All rights belong to their authors. This site does not claim authorship, but provides free use.
Copyright Infringement and Personal Data Infringement

Variety of animal species

Animals are the most diverse group of organisms on Earth. Currently, there are about 2 million species of animals on the planet. Most of them are insects (butterflies, mosquitoes, beetles, flies ...). About 130 thousand species of molluscs are known: snails, slugs, pearl barley, squid. The diversity in fish is much more modest - only 25 thousand species, in birds - 8 600 species. And mammals are only about 4 thousand species.

Note that we are not talking about the total number of animals in general, but about the number of animal species. The absolute number of animals on our planet is expressed in astronomical numbers!

Animals are varied in size. For example, in a giant blue whale, the body weight reaches 150 tons (the mass of the tongue of such a whale is equal to the mass of a small elephant), and a slipper ciliate can be detected only with the help of a microscope.

Animals in any habitat do not live everywhere, but occupy the most favorable areas for them. They are called habitats (or habitats) of animals. For example, nightingales are found in damp and shaded areas of the forest. Pikes in rivers prefer places with a slow current (pools, backwaters), overgrown off the coast.

Organisms in nature do not live in isolation from each other, but in species.

A species is a collection of similar individuals capable of crossing to form fertile offspring. The species consists of many individuals that reproduce, disperse, maintain unity in the struggle for existence. The area of ​​distribution of the species is called the area.

Zoology is the science of animals. People have long used animals in their lives. Getting animals, protecting their homes from predators and poisonous snakes, etc., they acquired knowledge about their appearance, habitat, lifestyle, habits and passed them on from generation to generation. Over time, books about animals appeared, the science of zoology arose (from the Greek "zo-on" - animal and "logos" - word, doctrine). Her birth dates back to the 3rd century. BC. and is associated with the name of the ancient Greek scientist Aristotle.

Modern zoology is a whole system of animal sciences. Some of them study the structure, development of animals, lifestyle, distribution on Earth; others are separate groups of animals, for example, only fish (ichthyology) or only insects (entomology). The knowledge gained by zoological sciences has great importance for the protection and restoration of the number of animals, the fight against plant pests, vectors and pathogens of human and animal diseases, etc.
Classification of animals. All animals, like other living organisms, have been grouped by scientists into systematic groups on the basis of kinship. The smallest of them is the species. All white hares living in the taiga, mixed forests or tundra belong to the same species - the white hare. A species in zoology is a set of animals that are similar to each other in all essential signs of structure and life, living in a certain territory and capable of producing fertile offspring. Each animal that has only its inherent structural and behavioral features is called an individual. Similar species are grouped into genera, genera - into families, families - into orders. Larger systematic groups of animals - classes, types.
The animal kingdom includes two sub-kingdoms: single-celled animals and multicellular animals, in which more than 20 types and several hundred classes are united.

Species diversity of a biocenosis - a set of plant and animal species that form a given biocenosis; represented by all groups of organisms - producers, consumers and decomposers; violation of any link in the food chain causes a violation of the biocenosis as a whole (for example, deforestation leads to a change in the species composition of insects, birds, and, consequently, animals).

6 main groups of animals, their brief description and photos

Species diversity is the number of species in a given community or area. Distinguish between alpha diversity (the number of species in the considered biotope), beta diversity (the number of species in all biotopes of a given area) and gamma diversity.

Any ecosystem is made up of a certain number of plant and animal species, between which a kind of balance has been established. Each population of individual species is characterized by a certain ratio between the formation of new individuals and the death of old ones. The system as a whole is characterized by the periodic appearance of some species (as a result of divergence or drift) and the wiping out of others.

The equilibrium number of species decreases with a decrease in the number of new species and with their extinction. Consider the island ecosystem as an example. The formation of species in the island system is replaced by the appearance of species from the near continent, if there are few species on the island, then the rate of colonization of the island by new species will decrease, and the appearance of new species will sharply slow down. If the island has all the species characteristic of the mainland, there will be no possibility of species emerging from the mainland at all. As species increase on the island, the rate of extinction increases, due to the presence of a huge number of populations, as well as the fact that increased competition accelerates the exclusion of any species.

Small populations tend to die off rapidly compared to large populations. On large islands the number of species is higher than on small islands, and the extinction curve of species on small islands is higher than on large islands. The mainland populations of most species are generally larger than the island populations, and therefore the rate of extinction of species on the island is higher than on the mainland. On the mainland, new species more often appear, forming within a certain region and due to the divergence of species in this region, and less due to the arrival of new species from other territories.

The number of species in a region affects the rate of speciation. If the number of species is high, then there is a stabilization in this process due to a decrease in the ecological capabilities of the system for the formation of new species. The role of loss of species is similar in marine island systems and mainland systems. The equilibrium number of species indicates the same number of outgoing and emerging species. The rate of species renewal in most cases exceeds the change in their diversity. The longer the period of development of ecosystems, the higher the proportion of endemics in it. In addition, the limitation of the lake space and the limitation of the variety of conditions restrain the processes of divergence. That is, in lake systems, the number of species is relatively quickly approaching a stable level. Taxa that reach a high diversity are quickly replaced by taxa that evolve slowly, but have a broader ecological potential, and naturally, more competitive.

Page 20 of 26

ANIMAL WORLD, pp. 58-61

1. Write down the names of the groups of the listed animals.

• Frog, toad, newt are amphibians.
• Earthworm, leech are worms.
• Snail, slug, octopus, squid are molluscs.
• Crayfish, crab, shrimp are crustaceans.
• Starfish, sea urchin, sea lily are echinoderms.
• Spider, scorpion, haymaker are arachnids.
• lizard, snake, crocodile, turtle are reptiles.

2. Identify the animals. Sign the names of the animals and the groups to which they belong.

On page 58 from left to right: amber snail (mollusc), goldfinch (birds), hay spider (arachnids).

On page 59, from left to right in the top row: otter (animals), Kamchatka crab (crustaceans), rhinoceros beetle (insects).

On page 59, from left to right in the bottom row: burbot (fish), tree frog (amphibians), already (reptiles).

4. Cut out the details from the application and build the development models.

Development models of fish, frogs, birds.

5. Think up and write down 2-3 questions for the quiz "In the animal world".

• In how many days will a chicken hatch from an egg?
• How is a frog different from a toad?
• Does the hare feed her cubs with milk?

6. Using the book "Green Pages", prepare a report about one of the species of animals of any group.

PINK SALMON. Pink salmon is a fish that usually lives in the sea, but lays eggs in rivers. The length of pink salmon reaches 50 cm. Pink salmon feeds on small fish and crustaceans. During spawning, pink salmon changes color, and males develop a large hump on their backs. Hence the name of the fish. Pink salmon is a valuable fish that needs protection and protection.

Goals:

• introduce students to the class of insects, reptiles, amphibians, fish, mammals and show their diversity and beauty;
• together with children, identify the most important signs of each class and learn how to use them to determine the belonging of an animal to this group;
• continue training in the practical study of natural objects;
• develop speech, observation, thinking of students;
• to cultivate love for nature and the ability to see its beauty, to instill environmentally competent behavior in nature.

During the classes

I. Organizational moment.

II. Knowledge update.

D. What was the subject of our research in the previous lesson?

E. The subject of our research was the world around us.

W. Please give a definition of nature.

E. Nature is everything that surrounds us and exists independently of man.

W. On what grounds can nature be divided into two groups?

• Wildlife representatives
• Representatives of inanimate nature

D. List the signs of wildlife

E. Living nature is composed of organisms that feed, grow, bear offspring, die.

D. Today in the lesson we will continue to explore (study) wildlife.

D. Listen to the sound recording and determine who will be the subject of our research?

D. Who will be the subject of our research?

E. List the names of recognized animals and birds.

D. How can you say in one word about the representatives you listed?

D. Animals.

D. What animals do you know? Where did you see them?

E. List the animals and tell where they were seen.

W. There are several million species of animals on Earth, and scientists are constantly discovering new species. Each animal is unique, but there are common features that distinguish a creature belonging to the animal kingdom from other representatives. The great ancient Greek scientist and thinker Aristotle (IV century BC) first tried to divide the animal kingdom into groups. How many groups did Aristotle get? We will return to this at the end of the lesson, but now let's try to create our own classification.

D. If you divided the animals into groups, how many groups would you have?

D. Provide answers.

III. The stage of assimilating new knowledge.

U. Find out who you are talking about?

Biting in vain, I don't want to -
I inform everyone about that.
And when I crawl, I crack
Like a rattling tail.

D. Rattlesnake.

I wandered on the sands all day,
Been everywhere in the heat.
Although it looks like a crocodile,
But I don't live in water.

Watching a video showing lizards, turtles, snakes, crocodiles.

D. Have you seen these animals? Where? What do you know about them? Where do these animals live?

E. Tell about where they saw and what they know about these animals.

W. Lizards and turtles, snakes and crocodiles, as well as long-extinct, but very popular dinosaurs - all these peculiar and wonderful creatures represent one class of animals.

W. Which are called. ... ...

E. Difficult to give a name.

D. How do these animals move?

E. These animals move mainly by crawling or dragging their belly along the ground.

W. All these animals without legs or with legs - creep, crawl. Therefore, they are called ...

D. Reptiles.

W. Often they are also called reptiles, because this is how the Latin name of this group sounds. They remain one of the brightest and most interesting groups of animals on the planet.

D. There are species that constantly live in trees and are even capable of gliding flight.

D. Have you seen reptiles in Nadym?

D. No. Did not see.

W. There are no reptiles only where constant cold reigns - in the Arctic, Antarctica and on the tops of the mountains.

D. Yes. The city of Nadym is located in the Far North. Therefore, reptiles do not live here.

W. On what grounds could we combine these animals into one (group) class and what data could we record in the passport of these animals?

E. Work in groups and name the signs:

1. The skin of reptiles is not naked, but covered with scales or horny shields.

Due to the keratinization of the skin, reptiles can even in deserts and in salty sea water.

2. Their body temperature depends on the environment. Therefore, they like to bask in the sun, and are common mainly in warm countries.

3. Head, trunk, tail, 4 limbs.

U. Supplements children: they lay eggs, but do not incubate them, and do not feed the young. The scales are changed many times, shedding along with the skin. And turtles and crocodiles do not shed their skin.

W. Find out who it is?

Children read.

Who is wearing a bright red beret,
In a black satin jacket?
He doesn't look at me.
Everything knocks, knocks, knocks.

Who is without notes and without a pipe
Trills are the best
More vociferous, more tender? Who is this?

D. Nightingale.

Guess what kind of bird
Afraid of the bright light?
Crochet beak, piglet eyes
Eared head. Who is this?

D: How can you say in one word? Woodpecker, nightingale, owl - this is ...

D. These are birds.

D: What do you know about them? Where do they live? Name the birds of our region.

D. Share their knowledge.

W. Birds are found all over the world, they can be seen even on the tops of the polar glaciers. Birds amaze with the variety of their shapes and colors. Only a few birds cannot fly. These are ostriches and penguins. Many birds need protection.

D: What are the benefits of birds?

E. They talk about the benefits of birds in nature.

W. Bird watchers - have you heard that word? What does it mean?

D. find it difficult to answer.

W. These are scientists who are studying birds.

D. By what signs can you determine that this animal is a bird?

E. Covered with feathers and down (the only inhabitants on Earth).

D: What are feathers for?

D. For flight.

W. Also, feathers protect the body of birds from getting wet, down protects the body from hypothermia.

E. Birds have wings.

E. They have a special structure of the jaws - they are devoid of teeth.

E. Head, torso, tail, two wings, two legs.

IV. Physical education.

Let us wave our hands,
And let's say something birdlike.
What if it will be?
What if we take off?
Let's try, what are we sitting?

U. Simulate the flight of birds, but if you hear that there are no birds, but someone else, clap your hands).

Birds arrived:
Doves, tits,
Flies and swifts
- What's wrong?
Birds arrived:
Doves, tits,
Lapwings, siskins,
Jackdaws and swifts,
Mosquitoes, cuckoos. ... ...

D: What's wrong?

E. Flies and mosquitoes are not birds.

Dramatization by children of an excerpt from the work "Fly-Tsokotukha"

Fly, Fly, Tsokotukha,
Gilded Belly!
The fly went across the field,
The fly found the money.
Fly went to the bazaar
And I bought a samovar:
“Come cockroaches,
I'll treat you to tea! "
Cockroaches came running
All the glasses were drunk
And the insects - three cups each
With milk and pretzel:
Today Fly-Tsokotukha
Birthday girl!
Fleas came to Fly,
They brought her boots
And the boots are not simple -
They have gold clasps.
I came to the Fly
Granny bee
Mukhe - Tsokotukhe
I brought honey. ... ...
“Butterfly-beauty,
Eat jam!
Or don't you like
Our treat?

W. Who was visiting the Fly?

D. List the guests.

D. Why didn't the fly invite the Hare, Stork or Bear?

D. Hare, stork and bear are not insects.

W. By what signs did you recognize insects?

D. List the signs.

Viewing a video about insects.

D. Let's define the common signs for them.

D. List the signs.

There is a head, abdomen, chest, 2 wings, 6 legs.

W. Not everyone.

D. How many legs do insects have?

D. How many legs does a spider have?

D. 8 legs. (arachnids)

D. Consider the belly of the insects. What have you noticed?

D. There are stripes on it.

W. These are notches.

D: So why were these animals called insects?

D. The name comes from the word notch.

W. The body of insects consists of separate segments, they provide mobility of the whole body. Insects have three sections: head, chest, abdomen. Insects are the largest and most diverse group of animals on earth.

V. Independent discovery of new knowledge. Work of children in groups.

Groups are given cards with animals:

Group 1 needs to perform a classification and select a group of amphibians.

Group 2 needs to classify and select a group of fish.

Group 3 needs to classify and select a group of animals.

Assignment to groups: consider the animals proposed to each group, give a name to this class of animals, name their distinctive features.

Checking the independent work of students according to the plan.

1st group

D: Tell us everything you know about these animals. Give a name to this group of animals.

E. Tell about the distinctive features of these animals.

They live both in water and on land.

The skin is usually thin and moist and serves as an additional respiratory organ.

The offspring are hatched in water.

Head, torso, 4 legs.

They are called amphibians.

Group 2.

Viewing video.

W. In calm sunny weather, the water surface resembles a huge mirror, in which clouds floating across the sky and trees bent over the water are reflected, it seems that the reservoir is empty and dead. However, in fact, under this surface, like glass, its own life boils along with a border, and quite serious passions flare up at one o'clock. And one of the main actors in this underwater play of life are peculiar animals - fish.

W. What is home for them?

D: Why do fish need scales?

D. To protect against mechanical damage.

D. What are the distinguishing features?

The answers of the children are listened to.

E. Head, body, elongated tail, fins, body covered with hard and durable scales.

W. One end of the scales sits deeply in the skin, and the free end tightly overlaps each other).

E. The fish has no neck.

D. Is it easy for you to move in the water?

U. The fish swims very quickly, it has to wedge itself into the water column, so the head is firmly connected without forming a neck.

Group 3

D. They are beasts.

W. How do these animals differ from other representatives of the animal world?

E. Their body is covered with hair.

This kind of animal can keep warm and live in the coldest conditions.

They only have real hair, which is called fur or wool.

D. Body, head, neck, 4 legs, tail.

W. The brain of these animals is more highly developed than the brain of any other animal.

D. Who knows what the mothers of these animals feed their young?

D. Milk.

D. Only this type of animal produces milk. So this kind of animals is called ...

D. Mammals.

W. Think, porcupine and hedgehog, what group of animals does it belong to?

D. Answers of children.

Vi. Conducting physical education with imitation of animal movements.

Zainka, come out
Gray, come out!
Zainka, stamp your foot!
Gray, stamp your foot!
Zainka, turn around
Gray, turn around!
Gray, hands on hips!
Zainka, jump,
Gray, jump!

Vii. Consolidation of the acquired knowledge.

D. How many groups did we get? Name them?

D. It turned out 5 groups: insects, reptiles, amphibians, fish, mammals.

W. Aristotle got 2 classes. You will learn how he made the division in high school in zoology and biology lessons.

VIII. Reflection.

D. What did you talk about in the lesson? What new have you learned?

D. Answer the questions posed.

D. What classes can animals be divided into?

D. Class - amphibians, reptiles, fish, mammals, birds, insects.

W. Listen to what M. Prishvin writes, and think, what is he afraid of?

W. If there is water, and there is not a single fish in it, I will not believe the water. And even if there is oxygen in the air, but a swallow does not fly, I will not believe the air, and a forest without animals, with only people, is not a forest. (M. Prishvin)

E. That the animals will disappear.

D. Why might this happen?

D. What should we know and remember in nature?

E. We must remember that animals are our friends.

E. We must behave in nature and live so as not to harm animals.

The world is full of mysterious creatures, they constantly surprise humanity. There are many species of animals that are striking in their uniqueness.

Classification

There are such groups of animals:

• Mammals.
• Molluscs, echinoderms.
• Fish, lancelets, cyclostomes.
• Birds.
• Reptiles.
• Amphibians.
• Arthropods.

Many animals have become relatives to man, since without them he cannot imagine his life. But there are wild creatures that people will never be able to tame. By the way, the first animal to be subdued by man was the wolf. This happened about 15 thousand years ago. He became domesticated, eventually evolved into a dog. Now it is best friend person.

How to determine the group of an animal?

A certain group corresponds to different creatures. The fauna is diverse, so each classification has its own characteristics. Namely:

1. Mammals include warm-blooded animals. They are covered with wool, they have a four-chambered heart, and the mammary glands secrete milk. During childbirth, they have a live baby.
2. Birds - that lay eggs. They are covered with feathers, have wings, and have a four-chambered heart.
3. Reptiles are cold-blooded animals. Their body is covered with scales, they lay eggs.
4. Amphibians are also cold-blooded. They have a three-chambered heart, they breathe with the help of their skin, their larvae live in water. Water can penetrate through the shell of the egg.
5. Chordates include some fish-like organisms on their list.

Varieties of living things depending on the food consumed

You can divide animals into groups according to the way they eat. There are herbivorous living things. They feed on leaves, seeds, fruits, roots, etc. Their oral apparatus has its own characteristics: they have more horny plates or incisors, molars. Nature has thus created a device for grinding food of plant origin. But aphids, bugs, cicada have a sucking apparatus, which gives them the opportunity to feed on plant juices. In the digestive tract, additional sections are developed, such as the scar, They allow you to process fiber. Herbivorous mammals have peripheral vision. Such animals have rather coarse muscles and not as developed as those of the predators of the same group.

Allocate animal predators that feed on other creatures. They have the skills to attack the victim. Among all the teeth, canines are considered the most developed; this difference is observed in mammals. In a crocodile, the mouth is elongated, and in a shark, a number of rows of teeth are directed inward. Birds of prey have developed and sharp claws. Predatory mammals have good visual acuity. Carnivores attack the victim in a special way: they wait, make a sharp dash. They are hardy, have precise coordination, and are very fast.

The starfish destroys the enemy in a special way. She crawls onto the mussel, waits for the flaps to open, and then injects enzymes into the sink.

But woodpeckers eat insect larvae that live under the bark of trees. To do this, they have a strong large beak, special paws with which birds firmly hold on to. Each creature nature has created certain devices with which you can get food.

There are groups of animals that feed on the remains of organisms. Carrion birds are a prime example. They have a long neck, narrow muzzle, and a good sense of smell. But, for example, the food of fly larvae is the organic remains of plants and animals.

• round and flat worms;
• insects such as fleas, mosquitoes, bedbugs, mosquitoes, lice, midges;
• ticks;
• crustaceans;
• cyclostomes.

There are also groups of animals by the way of feeding that eat food of plant and animal origin. They are called omnivores. They are endowed with traits that resemble both carnivores and herbivores. These animals are bears, crickets, rats. Reptiles include geckos, agama and other reptiles. A person is also included in this group.

Interesting information about animals from different groups

There are some facts that amaze many people:

1. The giraffe has the largest heart. In this animal, the length of which reaches 45 cm.
2. The bones of the garfish fish are green.
3. The cat is unable to move its jaws.
4. The whale's heart rate is 9 beats per minute.
5. The octopus has rectangular pupils.
6. A record chicken flight was recorded. It is 13 seconds long.
7. The muscles of the caterpillar are more numerous than those of humans.
8. The armadillo female is able to prolong pregnancy up to 2 years if she is under stress.
9. The titmouse sometimes feeds its young a thousand times a day.

Groups of dangerous animals

All entities in the world can be classified according to other criteria. For example, groups of animals are distinguished that are dangerous to human life. At first glance, they may seem harmless. Such an animal is a mosquito. He is a carrier of malaria. The insect infects the infection through the blood. About 2 million people die from the bites of these animals every year.

The Australian jellyfish replenishes the lists of dangerous living creatures. She has very long tentacles that reach up to 4 meters. At the same time, their number is 60 pieces. At the same time, the jellyfish is capable of killing 60 people. And many other animals are dangerous to humans.

conclusions

So, it is not difficult to determine which group of animals a particular creature belongs to. The main thing is to know by what criteria the grouping takes place. After all, animals are divided by place of residence, way of feeding, classes, types and other factors. Each living creature is adapted to its environment, has its own characteristics, eats different foods.

What groups are animals divided into? If you are interested in this question, then after reading this article, you will find all the necessary information.

What groups are animals divided into?

Animals are living organisms that eat ready-made food, unlike plants, they have the ability to move in space and grow, not throughout their life, but only at a young age.

Animals are divided into several groups, this classification depends on appearance, body structure, reproduction, living conditions and the like.

There are 6 types of animals:

• Reptiles.
• Amphibians.
• Fishes.
• Mammals (animals).
• Birds.
• Insects.

What groups are animals divided into according to the way of feeding?

• Herbivores: bee, deer, roe deer, hare and the like.
• Carnivores(predatory): owl, already, wolf, etc.
• Omnivores: sparrow, badger, wild boar, bear and the like.

Insects- animals with 3 pairs of legs, one or two pairs of wings. Their body consists of 3 parts: head, chest, abdomen.

Insects can be both beneficial and harmful. Beneficial insects include: bee, sun, ant, bumblebee, grandma; to harmful: mosquito, locust, bear, moth, Colorado potato beetle.

Birds- animals whose body is covered with feathers, a beak is located on the head. Birds can be migratory, wintering and nomadic.

• Migratory birds are birds that fly to warm regions in the cold season, and return to their native land in spring, such birds include swallows, cuckoos, starlings, rooks, cranes, etc.
• Wintering birds - representatives constantly live in the same area, are not afraid of either severe frosts or severe winters (tit, sparrow, dove, jay, woodpecker).
• Nomadic birds are those that are accustomed to flying in winter from even colder territories (from the northern regions). These include bullfinches, waxwings, siskins and the like.

Beasts- animals whose body is covered with wool. They usually move with four paws. Animals feed their offspring with milk, which is why they received the second name "mammals". Sometimes some representatives of this group hibernate, for example, a hedgehog, a badger, a bear. Hibernation is the process of adaptation of some animals to adverse weather conditions.