Biodiversity in Animals

Remember: Biodiversity refers to plants, animals, microorganisms, and their habitats. Living organisms are sorted and classified
according to their similarities in how they move, feed and reproduce.
What are vertebrate animals?
Vertebrate animals have an internal skeletal structure. These structures may be simple or complex, but they all contain a backbone.
Did you know? Only about 2% of all the animals on Earth fall into the category of vertebrates.

Vertebrate animals are divided into 5 subsections. • Breathe using gills

• Breathe using lungs
• Birds
• Have scales • Have wings covered in feathers
• Mammals
• Reproduce by laying eggs in water • Reproduce by laying eggs
• Reptiles
• Live in water • Most have the ability to fly
• Amphibians
• Fish
A Fish
• When they are young, they

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have gills and when they
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mature they have lungs ib

Bir
ians
• Have smooth, slimy skin
Vertebrate

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• Reproduce by laying eggs in water
• Live on land and in water Animals • Breathe using lungs
• Have limbs with hair or fur
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• Reproduce by giving birth to live young

• Breathe using lungs le a
pt

ls
• Most live on land
s m
i

• Have scales
Ma m
• Reproduce by laying eggs on land
• Live on land and in water

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What are invertebrate animals? Biodiversity in Animals
Invertebrate animals do not have a skeletal structure. There are also 5 subsections of invertebrate animals.
• Sea sponges
• Jellyfish
• Roundworms
• Molluscs (soft bodied animals that live in a shell)
Invertebrate

Insects
• Arthropods (animals with segments, jointed legs and a hard outer shell. Animals
Most of animal life on earth is made of invertebrate
animals, therefore there are many different categories • Are divided into three
and subsections. Let’s look at some of the subsections in sections – head,
thorax and abdomen

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the group “Arthropods”. ch
n

a
ids ns
e a
• Have six legs Crustac
• May have one or two pairs of wings

• Have antennae

• Are divided into two sections – cephalothorax and abdomen

• Have eight legs • Are divided into two sections –

cephalothorax and abdomen
• No wings
• Have ten to twelve legs
• No antennae
• No wings

• Two pairs of antennae

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