Facts about the animal kingdom of All animals
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The deep sea is full of interesting and weird animals. Many of them seem to come from a horror movie as they share certain characteristics such as large teeth, blindness or even transparent skin. Little is known about this ocean layer however marinebiologists are now making more expeditions in order to...
Snakes are vertebrate and ectothermic animals. They are also one of the few organisms that propel themselves by sliding their bodies on the ground. This movement is called slithering. It's extraordinary how snakes are able to move their limbless bodies through various terrains including rocks, sand,...
Water birds are a group of birds which make up one of the most charismatic fauna which inhabit wetlands. There are many types of birds which live on and around bodies of water. Some water bird species are not fully adapted to the aquatic environment and only use these locations part of the year, depending...
Snakes are carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes. These long and legless animals have a very unique anatomy that make us question how exactly their body works. This is especially true given that this group of animals have gone through a great variety of adaptations and physiological and anatomical...
Fish are the most diverse vertebrates when it comes to aquatic environments. In fact, there are about 28,000 species of fish around the world. They have a large number of anatomical and physiological adaptations that have allowed them to evolve successfully over the years.
In this AnimalWised article...
Birds are endothermic vertebrates that come in all different shapes and sizes. Their main characteristic is the fact that their bodies are covered in feathers. However, many people ask themselves if featherless birds exist.
While some species of birds are already born without feathers, others are born with...
Procreation through sexual reproduction implies the necessary presence of two different sexes. The competition for resources, the risk of predation, the energy expenditure of finding and courting a mate have made many animal species evolve to facilitate this entire process.
In this AnimalWised article we will...
A beak, also called bill or rostrum, is an external anatomical structure mostly found in birds. It's used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, searching for food, courtship and feeding their young. Beaks can vary significantly in size, shape, color and texture, but are...
Biology has a wide range of vocabulary to classify and characterise different species. In this AnimalWised article we are going to talk about endemism.
We will define what an endemic species is and give examples with photos and descriptions so that you have a good understanding of what it is. Continue...
For many years, humans have been changing the ecosystem in many ways. However, in the recent years we have started to realise the negative consequences to our actions and begin to implement certain strategies. After all, we can only thrive on a healthy planet. This is where the umbrella species comes in.
What...
There are different types of birds that live in different environments. For this, they will need useful feet that will help them survive in their natural habitat. Their type of feet needs to be able to help them hunt, climb, swim, etc., depending on their environment and needs.
In this AnimalWised...
Ants (Formicidae) are part of the hymenopteran family. They are well known for their interesting social behavior as these insects form large colonies that cooperate as a single unit. This feature has allowed them to take advantage of all available resources and thrive all over the planet.
We often see...
One of the most important elements of AnimalWised is our commitment to spreading information about animal and wildlife conservation. While we do this through our articles and videos, one of the best ways to learn about nature is to immerse ourselves in a documentary. Nature documentaries can help to take...
There are many different types of animal communication, much of which we don't fully understand. Despite millennia of study, we are always finding new facets about how animals transmit information between one another. The reasons for communication are also complex and not always well discerned. Animals have...
You have probably heard about birds that ‘head south’ for the winter, or seen videos of hordes of wildebeest travelling across the Serengeti. In fact, many animal species make long annual journeys, for a variety of reasons and in very different regions across our planet. Although we don't always understand...
The color of an animals skin and coat are one of the many characteristics which allow us to distinguish one species from another. Our fascination with the colors and coat patterns is seen throughout history, in particular with art, design, textiles and many other industries. However, there are some animals...
All living beings on this planet need to reproduce to perpetuate their species. Not all animals reproduce in the same way. Moreover, not all individuals of a species will reproduce either because they don't have the opportunity or they were never intended to do so. For example, animals within eusocial...
In a previous article we have looked at the animals that sleep the most. Often due to slow metabolism, these animals need a lot of rest to conserve their energy and survive. On the other hand, some animals seem to never sleep or at least we have seen little evidence of it. But are there animals that don't sleep?...
Did you know that there are some animals that are capable of sleeping more than 20 hours in a row? These long sleep patterns are related to factors such as food, performed activities and needs of the specific species. Additionally, did you know that there are some animals that don’t sleep much?
For...
Mollusks refer to are a large group of soft-bodied invertebrate animals. Although the phylum Mollusca are made up of a set of incredibly diverse animals, there are certain characteristics which aid to classify them. Whether you are looking to discover mollusks characteristics, classification of mollusca...
All life as we know it began in water. While it is difficult to prove, evidence suggests that gills existed before lungs. It is not that breathing with lungs is better or worse than breathing through gills. These different methods of animal respiration exist because of the different environments in which they...
Human beings have spent centuries studying animal behavior. Ethology, which defines this specific scientific discipline, aims among other things, to distinguish whether animals think or not. Humans generally assume that the main difference between animals and humans is the level of intelligence, but is this...
Our planet are full of extraordinary organisms and animals, capable of living under the most extreme conditions. Organisms that live in extreme environments are also referred to as extremophiles and they can include bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya.
Keep reading here at AnimalWised for more about the animals...
Trophic levels are analyzed and studied under the discipline of ecology, a subset of biology. This is the science which studies the relationships established between an environment and the organisms within it. This includes the relationships and interactions the species within these environments have with...
Many animals breathe through the skin, although some of them, due to their size, combine this with other types of breathing. Did you know that some of the animals that breathe through their skin may also modify the shape of their bodies to increase surface/volume ratio? Animals that breathe through the...
Nature is many things. It can be as beautiful as it is frightening, as delicate as it is powerful. Our existence on this planet has many repercussions, many of which we are only beginning to understand. What we do know is that in our desire to consume and our reliance on unsustainable practices, we are detrimentally...
From birth, all animals undergo various morphological, anatomical and biochemical changes. Even after they reach adulthood, there are still some changes which occur as cells replicate and die in constant order. Many of these changes are physiological and affect body size, shape, etc. Others are hormonal,...
Insectivorous or entomophagous animals base their diet, or part of it, on the consumption of insects. There is a great variety of animals that eat insects, from amphibians to mammals. These animals obtain an important source of protein from these insects, needed to live a healthy life. But which are the...
The truth is that any animal can be preyed on, but this does necessarily make the animal a prey animal. In fact, prey animals are are easily distinguishable from those that are not. However, the relationship between prey and predatory animals is fundamental when it comes to ecological balance.
For...
As with terrestrial animals, fish need oxygen to live. Unlike land animals, they have to live the majority of their lives completely submerged underwater. We lung users might be biased on our ideas about breathing. It is true that we have evolved to the point we can breathe on land, but the over 33,000...
The North Pole is one of the most mysterious and inhospitable places on planet Earth. The Arctic North Pole, situated in the Northern hemisphere, is known for its extreme weather, climate and incredibly diverse fauna and flora. But which animals make up this full list of arctic animals living in the North...
If we spot a long eared little mammal running across a meadow, it's not always easy to tell if it is a rabbit or hare. In fact, we have to look at the taxonomic classification of these two species to see how they differentiate. If you ask yourself how closely related are rabbits and hares, then it is important...
Australia, as you probably already know, is rich with incredible fauna. From the famous Kangaroo to dingoes to freshwater crocodiles, Australia’s animal world is incredibly diverse! Did you know that many Australian animals, having evolved in an environment devoid of predators, are extremely confident despite...
In recent years, the definition of ‘ungulate’ has been up for debate. The debate centers around which animals should be categorized under this term as it is a word applicable to a diverse range of mammals. A common ancestor is believed to link the animals together, but some zoologists and taxonomists disagree...
All living beings need to adapt to their environment to survive. These environments are as wide ranging as life itself, whether underwater, in a desert or even in the body of another living being. Helping to better understand these types of adaptations, we can place them all in three major categories:
Physiolog...
All living beings perform some sort of function. While we may not think of every creature on the planet as being important, they all work together to fulfill a role in any given ecosystem. We may not be aware of what this function is, but without it, said ecosystem will be affected. Whether or not the role...
Transgenic animals are animals that have been cloned. The medical and biotechnological uses of animal cloning are almost innumerable, as many diseases have been eradicated thanks to the production of these transgenic animals. Due to the controversial concept of cloning and scientific testing on animals,...
Fish experience reproduction in one of two ways. These processes include fertilization inside or outside the body. Fish are either ovoviviparous, viviparous or oviparous. Additionally, it is important to note that reproduction can also change according to the fish’s environment, specifically if it lives in...
In an ideal world, there would be no need for volunteering. For animal shelters, the reality is that animal neglect and abuse has lead to a vast surplus of abandoned and mistreated animals. With resources for all community services being overstretched, it is no understatement to say that many animal...
In nature there are several reproductive strategies one of them being oviparous. You should know that there are many animals which follow this reproductive path, these animals also appeared much earlier in evolutionary history than viviparous animals.
If you want to know what oviparous animals are, find...
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