What animals are there? Some features of the classification

The animal world that surrounds us is very diverse. Flying, creeping, floating, walking and running: "Each creature in pairs," as the Bible says. And about how many these "creatures", and what are the animals that live on land, in air and water, read in this article.

The science of animal classification

There is a science that systematizes all the inhabitants of the biosphere. It is called taxonomy and determines what animals are. Science is able to determine the degree of kinship between organisms, which may not always be due to external similarity. It happens that similar animals are related to different orders, and unlike (armadillos, anteaters, sloths) are united in one unit. The definition of the kinship of these or other creatures depends on the origin, and on paleontological and genetic research.

What are the classes of animals?

All life on Earth is divided into five great kingdoms. The world is inhabited by bacteria, protozoa, fungi, plants and animals (multicellular creatures that can move, feed on plants or other animals). The animal kingdom is divided into 10 types, respectively, among which the most progressive is chordates (they have a primary skeletal axis). The most highly developed are vertebrates that have a spine transformed from a chorda.

What animals are there?

Types, in turn, are divided into classes. Vertebrate animals are distinguished by five classes: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The latter has the highest organization among all vertebrates. There are also two subclasses of these animals: oviparous and viviparous. The first lay eggs like birds, for example, but their babies are fed milk. The second (and marsupial, and placental) give birth or underdeveloped cubs, which are then in a special mother bag, or give birth to already formed babies.

Find out what kind of animals can be, and more in detail. Subclasses are divided into groups, detachments - for childbirth, and childbirth - for species. Today, up to four thousand mammals live on our planet. And each of the animals individually is called an individual.

The concept of food chain

Will we find out what other animals are there ? Vegetable, omnivorous, carnivorous. Green plants provide themselves with food through photosynthesis, which converts air, water, solar energy into the most complex compounds. Animals do not know how to do this. They have to eat plants or their own kind. So the food chain is formed .

Vegetable-eating

Most of the existing species of animals eat vegetarian food. They use certain parts of plants and their varieties, most suitable for the digestive system of the organism. Everyone has their own preferences: leaves and stems, roots and bark. Much of this can be difficult to digest, but this process in herbivorous animals is helped by the simplest microorganisms and bacteria that live in the stomach. In each class, type, detachment there are herbivorous. These are insects: beetles, bees, butterflies, grasshoppers, and fish: for example, representatives of bone, and reptiles: turtles, and birds: passerines, chicken. In the class of mammals, marsupials, artiodactyls, odd-ungulates, rodents, hares, proboscis are herbivorous. Some whales also prefer phytoplankton. In the food chain, these animals are called second -level organisms (trophic).

Omnivorous

Continue to find out what kind of animals are? Omnivores are the next type that we will consider. It is interesting that many species of organisms that feed mainly on plants, sometimes do not mind eating meat. And carnivores also sometimes do not disdain to try anything vegetarian. Such animals are called omnivores. As an example, you can bring some insects (cockroaches, etc.), ostriches, rats, pigs, most bears, anthropoid apes (chimpanzees and others). The same applies to man.

It is interesting that the digestive system of omnivores is not so narrowly specialized. Therefore, their stomachs can digest both plant and animal food. The omnivorous mammals also do not have fangs, as in predators, and incisors are located in the front of the mouth.