ANIMALS AND THE STUDY OF THEM

SPECIES, ORDERS AND CLASSES

Animal and plant taxonomy: 1) species; 2) genus; 3) family; 4) order; 5) class; 6) subphylum; 7) phylum; 8) kingdom; 9) super kingdom. In reverse order they are: 1) kingdom; 2) phylum; 3) class 4) order; 5) family; 6) genus; 7) species — easily remembered by the mnemonic: “King Philip came over for great spaghetti.” Phyla are basic lineages such as vertebrates, arthropods, sponges, segmented worms and mollusks. The major classes of vertebrates are mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians.

Vertebrates are animals with backbones. Invertebrates are animals without backbones. Of the 1.2 million or so known animals that have been identified so far, about 95 percent are invertebrates and 5 percent are vertebrates. Animals can also be categorized by how they generate body heat. Enotherms warm themselves mainly through metabolic processes. Ectotherms get external heat from the environment.

Two animals belong to different species if the can not mate with each other. New species often evolve when one species population is divided by, say, a stream that widens into an uncrossable river, and the subpopulations on either side of the river over time evolve independently and develop into new species that can not interbreed.

Websites and Resources: Rainforest Action Network ran.org ; Rainforest Foundation rainforestfoundation.org ; World Rainforest Movement wrm.org.uy ; Wikipedia article Wikipedia ; Forest Peoples Programme forestpeoples.org ; Rainforest Alliance rainforest-alliance.org ;Rainforest Portal rainforestportal.org ; Prince’s Rainforest Project rainforestsos.org/about-rainforests ; Nature Conservancy nature.org/rainforests ; National Geographic environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/rainforest-profile ; Rainforest Books: ”The Private Life of Plants: A Natural History of Plant Behavior” by David Attenborough (Princeton University Press, 1997); “Portraits of the Rainforest” By Adrian Forsythe.

Websites and Resources on Rainforest Plants and Animals: Rainforest Animals rainforestanimals.net ; Rainforest Animal Photos mongabay.com ; Rainforest Plant Photos rain-tree.com/plantimages ; Rainforest Animal Photos leslietaylor.net/gallery/animals ; Rainforest Plants wheatonma.edu/rainforest ; Enchanted Learning enchantedlearning.com/subjects/rainforest ; Amazon Plants junglephotos.com ; Plants plants.usda.gov ; Biology of Plants .mbgnet.net/bioplants ; Botany.com botany.com ; Life Cycle of Plants /www2.bgfl.org ; Scientific American articles on plants scientificamerican.com ; Dave’s Garden davesgarden.com/guides ; Wikipedia article Wikipedia ; Picture Gallery in German pflanzenliebe.de Also see the Census of Marine Life at http://www.coml.org and the Encyclopedia of Life: http://www.eol.org

Websites and Resources on Animals: ARKive arkive.org Animal Info animalinfo.org ; Animal Picture Archives (do a Search for the Animal Species You Want) animalpicturesarchive ; BBC Animals Finder bbc.co.uk/nature/animals ; Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu ; International Field Guides media.library.uiuc.edu ; animals.com animals.com/tags/animals-z ; Encyclopedia of Life eol.org ; World Wildlife Fund (WWF) worldwildlife.org ; National Geographic National Geographic ; Animal Planet animal.discovery.com ; Wikipedia article on Animals Wikipedia ; Animals.com animals.com ; Endangered Animals iucnredlist.org ; Endangered Species Resource List ucblibraries.colorado.edu ; Biodiversity Heritage Library biodiversitylibrary.org Books: “Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia” (Macmillian); “Animal Life” (DK, American Museum of Natural History) edited by zoologist Charlotte Uhlenbroek. The Encyclopedia of Life is a project to create an online reference source for very one of the 1.8 million species that are named and known on the planet and add new ones as they are discovered. The WWF is the world’s largest independent conservation body.

See Studying the Rainforest and Biodiversity and Deforestation Under Deforestation

Water Flea Has More Genes than Humans

In February 2011, AFP reported, “A tiny, translucent water flea that can reproduce without sex and lives in ponds and lakes has more genes than any other creature, say scientists who have sequenced the crustacean’s genome. Daphnia pulex, named after the nymph in Greek mythology who transforms into a tree in order to escape the lovestruck Apollo, has 31,000 genes compared to humans who have about 23,000, said the research in the journal Science. [Source: AFP, February 4, 2011]

Often studied by scientists who want to learn about the effects of pollution and environmental changes on water creatures, the almost-microscopic freshwater Daphnia is the first crustacean to have its genome sequenced. But just because this creature — viewed as the canary in the gold mine of the world’s waters — has more genes doesn’t necessarily mean they are all unique, explained project leader John Colbourne. “Daphnia’s high gene number is largely because its genes are multiplying by creating copies at a higher rate than other species,” said Colbourne, genomics director at the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics.

Daphnia has a large number of never-before seen genes, as well as a big chunk of the same genes found in humans, the most of any insects or crustacean so far known to scientists. “More than one-third of Daphnia’s genes are undocumented in any other organism — in other words, they are completely new to science,” said Don Gilbert, coauthor and Department of Biology scientist at IU Bloomington.

These unique and previously unknown genes are “involved in response to the environment,” the study said. James Klaunig, professor of environmental health at Indiana University Bloomington, said the genome will help scientists study the effect of environmental pollutants on humans. Genome research on the responses of animals to stress has important implications for assessing environmental risks to humans,” Klaunig said.

“The Daphnia system is an exquisite aquatic sensor, a potential high-tech and modern version of the mineshaft canary,” he said. “With knowledge of its genome, the possible effects of environmental agents on cellular and molecular processes can be resolved and linked to similar processes in humans.” The water flea can be found throughout North America, Europe and Australia.

The Daphnia Genomics Consortium, led by the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics at IU Bloomington and the US Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute, included more than 450 investigators around the globe.

Animal Behavior

A number of studies seem to indicate that animals feel pain. On study, for instance showed that rats and chickens prefer bad-tasting feed with pain killers over good-tasting feed without pain killers. Other studies and anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that although animals feel pain it doesn’t bother them as much as it bothers humans. Seattle biologist Bruce Bagemihl estimates 450 animal species exhibit some form of homosexual behavior, which includes same-sex courtship, displays of affection, sexual activity, long-tern pairing and parenting.

Animals used to roaming around and covering large distances on foot such as elephants, antelope and bears are often the ones seem the unhappiest and get the most neurotic in zoos while creatures that spend a lot of time sitting around like wild cats and hanging out like monkeys and apes are relatively okay.

Website: Top Secret Animal Attacks: www.igorilla.com/gorilla/animal

Feeding Animals

No animal can create its own food like a plant does. All animals must get their food from outside their bodies, with the ultimate source being plants. Animals that eat plants directly are called herbivores. Those that eat other animals are called carnivores. Even carnivores are ultimately dependent on plants because the animals they eat either eat plants or animals that eat plants or animals that eat animals that eat plants.

Carnivores are among the most advanced animals. Meat is muscle and is one of the richest, most-energy-packed of all foods. Many carnivores have large brains, in part because catching prey takes more skill and brain power than eating a plant.

Carnivores generally have teeth such as canines that are used to stab the victim and perhaps kill it near the front of their mouth and other teeth (“carnassials in mammals) further back in jaws that cut and grind the meat up make it easier to swallow and digest. Unless an ecosystem has been disturbed wherever you find large numbers of herbivores you can find carnivores that feed on them. Most large animals found on the land are mammals.

Carnivorous mammals — or animals — generally fall into two groups: 1) those that feed on large prey; and 2) those that will feed on small bite size prey, often things like insects or earthworms. As a carnivore get bigger in size the more small creatures fail to meet its nutritional needs, with the tipping point being about 20 kilograms, about the size of a coyote, after which point it make more sene to pursue big game.

Venoms of snakes, spiders and centipedes contain hundreds of toxins.

Mating Animals

Among many animals, when it comes to mating, the female chooses while the males compete with each other for the female’s attention, each trying to show they will provide the best sperm for her offspring. Males are often the biggest sex because they have fight each other and the most decorated because he has to attract the female’s attention.

The evolutionary biologist William Eberhard told National Geographic, “Basically the male wants access to the female’s eggs. And he’ll do whatever it takes to please her. But it’s here game; she sets the rules. And she makes the choice.”

Studying Animals

The so-called Crittercam — a video camera that is attached to an animal, recording the world from the animals’s perspective — has been a great boon to scientists not to say producers of wildlife documentaries. The device was invented by Gary Marshall, now a scientist and filmmaker at National Geographic, after observing a remora clinging to a reef shark while scuba diving in Belize. The first devise was tried in 1987 and weighed three kilograms, compared to current models which weigh two third of a kilogram. Over the years the critter-cam has been attached to more than 50 species of marine, terrestrial and flying creatures including great white sharks, black bears, lions penguins, sea turtles and Hawaiian monk seals.

High speed video and film cameras have revolutionized the study of animals by allowing scientist to take a close look at sophisticated processes such as bumble bee flying, a bat landing and a moray eel eating.

Camera traps take photos when heat sensors trip the shutter as an animal passes.

Scientists track their movement and territories of animals with radio collars. They attach the collars after the animals are trapped or subdued with tranquilizer darts. After some time the batteries in the collars wear out and have to be replaced and the animals have to be trapped, tranquilized and re-collared.

Each battery powered radio collar emits a distinctive signal that can be picked up with a directional antennae..

Radio collars, tranquilizer guns, See African Animals

See Africa

Filming Animals

Mark Linfield, director of “Earth” and a crew member of the BBC “Planet Earth” series with Sir David Attenborough, told the Daily Yomiuri, the animals in the documentaries he’s worked on are carefully chosen in advance along with the best places and best times to see and shoot them. He said it is important for the crew to remain upbeat even when film scene don’t work as expected.”A director of wildlife films is slightly different from a director of a people documentary,” he said. “A normal director would try to get good onscreen performances from people. My job is more about designing the storyline and making sure that cameramen have the best possible opportunity to get the material that I need and making sure that they understand how I wanted it shot visually and the look that I want...So the cameramen needs to know exactly what images they are trying to get and I need to make sure that I’m giving them the best possible opportunity, I putting them in the best place with the best scientific advise with the best equipment.

David Attenborough

Through a brilliant series of BBC-produced nature documentaries veteran broadcaster Sir David Attenborough perhaps has done more than anyone to bring the animal and plant kingdoms into people’s homes in a way that has been endlessly interesting and amazing . His series include “Life on Earth”, “Living Planet”, “The Private Life of Plants” and “The Life of Birds”.

The brother of film director Richard Attenborough, who directed “Gandhi” and appeared in “Jurassic park”, David Attenborough he grew in College House near the University of Leicester, where his father was a principal, and won a scholarship in 1945 to attend Clare College Cambridge, where he studied zoology and geology and obtained a degree in natural science.

After a brief stint in the Navy Attenborough got a job editing children’s science textbooks but quickly became disillusioned with that. He applied for a job with BBC radio but was rejected. His resume however fell into the hands of one of the first BBC television producer who was impressed and hired Attenborough who didn’t have a television, like most people at that time (1952), and had only seen one television program. His early work included a quiz show called “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?” and a folk music series narrated by Alan Lomax. Among his early animal series were the studio -produced “The Patterns of Animals” and “Zoo Quest”, about an animal-collecting expedition, first broadcast in 1954.

In the mid 1960s Attenborough became comptroller at BBC 2. While held that job he continued to work on projects. In the mid 1970s he began working on “Life on Earth”, which was first broadcast in 1979. In 2010, at the age of 83, with two bad knees, Attenborough realized a boyhood ambition of standing at the South Pole and North Pole for his series “Frozen Planet”.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Mostly National Geographic articles. Also “Life on Earth” by David Attenborough (Princeton University Press), New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Natural History magazine, Discover magazine, Times of London, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated March 2011


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