Welcome to our Animal Science Page
What is Animal Science?
Look around, and you’ll spot animals everywhere – a bird flying overhead, ants on the sidewalk, and maybe even a pet cat napping nearby.
Animal science is the study of these creatures, including their biology, behavior, and interactions with their environment. From the smallest single-celled organisms to the largest whales, we study how they live, grow, and adapt to their surroundings.
What Makes an Animal an Animal?
All these different creatures are animals because they share some key features. Animals eat other organisms for food, can move around (at least at some point in their lives), and are made up of many cells working together. Most animals can sense and react to what’s happening around them too.
Animal Diversity
The major animal groups and their characteristics
How animals are classified and why it matters
Animal Classification
With so many different kinds of animals on Earth, scientists needed a way to organize them. This organization system is called classification. The first big split is between vertebrates (animals with backbones) and invertebrates (animals without backbones).
Vertebrates are divided into five main groups:
Mammals
(Class Mammalia)
Ever pet a dog or felt the warmth of a cat in your lap?
You’re feeling some of the key traits that make a mammal a mammal.
These animals, part of the class Mammalia, all have hair or fur at some point in their lives, are warm-blooded, and produce milk for their young.
The over 5,000 species of mammals have found ways to live pretty much everywhere – bats fly through the night sky, dolphins swim in the oceans, and cheetahs run across grasslands.
Birds
(Class Aves)
Look up in any tree or across any park and you’ll spot members of class Aves – the birds.
Those feathers you see are something special – no other animal has them.
If you ever find a bird bone, you’ll notice it’s hollow, like nature’s own aircraft design.
Birds are warm-blooded, lay hard-shelled eggs, and have beaks instead of teeth.
There are over 9,000 species of birds. While most fly, some like penguins swim, and others like ostriches run.
Fish
(Classes: Agnatha, Chondrichthyes, and Osteichthyes)
Take a look underwater and you’ll see fish – animals that breathe through gills and live their whole lives in water.
They come in three main groups: jawless fish (class Agnatha, about 50 species), sharks and rays with skeletons made of cartilage (class Chondrichthyes, around 600 species), and bony fish (class Osteichthyes, with 30,000 species).
Some live in salt water, others in fresh water, and some can handle both.
They range from smaller than your fingernail to bigger than a school bus, and scientists are still finding new species.
Reptiles
(Class Reptilia)
See that lizard sitting in the sun? It’s doing what reptiles do best – using the environment to control its body temperature.
These animals in class Reptilia are cold-blooded, which means they can’t make their own body heat like we do.
They have scales covering their skin, lay eggs with shells (most of them), and breathe with lungs.
Watch one for a while and you’ll see it move between sunny and shady spots as it warms up or cools down.
Amphibians
(Class Amphibia)
When you see a frog hop from pond to land, you’re watching an amphibian do what they do best – live in both worlds.
These class Amphibia animals start life in water with gills, like fish, then develop lungs to breathe air.
Their skin is special too – it’s moist and can actually absorb oxygen, giving them another way to breathe.
That’s why you’ll often find frogs, salamanders, and newts near water even as adults.
Invertebrates
Look closely at a garden or tide pool and you’ll find animals without backbones – the invertebrates.
These animals make up about 97% of all animal species on Earth. Scientists have found over 1.3 million different kinds so far, and they think there are many more out there waiting to be discovered.
You can find them pretty much everywhere – in your backyard, in oceans and lakes, and even in the Arctic.
Let’s break them into two main groups:
Without Legs
(Mollusca and More)
Take a look under a log or in the ocean and you might find animals that move without legs.
These include:
Worms (multiple phyla): Like earthworms and marine worms
Mollusks (phylum Mollusca): Like snails, slugs, octopus, and clams
Jellyfish and their relatives (phylum Cnidaria): Including sea anemones and corals
Sponges (phylum Porifera): The simplest of all animals
With Legs
(Arthropods and More)
Ever watched an ant carry food or a spider build a web? These are arthropods – animals with jointed legs and a hard outer shell called an exoskeleton.
This group includes:
Insects (class Insecta): Think bees, butterflies, and beetles
Arachnids (class Arachnida): Like spiders and scorpions
Crustaceans (class Crustacea): Like crabs, shrimp, and lobsters
Millipedes and Centipedes (classes Diplopoda and Chilopoda): The many-legged crawlers
- Land animals
- Ocean life
- Flying animals
- Underground animals
- Extreme environments
- Unique species
- Island animals
- Deep sea creatures
- Origins of animal groups
- First animals
- How diversity develops
- Extinction and survival
- Major transitions
- Key adaptations
- Diversity patterns
- Modern species changes
- Extinction events
- Survival strategies
- Modern changes
- Future predictions
- Symmetry types
- Body segments and parts
- Basic structures
- Complex organs
- Movement systems
- Support structures
- Size constraints
- Shape variations
- Direct development
- Metamorphosis
- Life stages
- Growth rates
- Sexual vs asexual
- Egg types
- Live birth
- Parental care
Animal Anatomy and Physiology
How different body systems work
Special adaptations (like how polar bears stay warm)
Unique features (like the shrimp’s head-heart)
How bodies match environments
Animal Behavior
Understanding why animals behave the way they do
Communication between animals
Social structures and relationships
Survival strategies
Migration and navigation
Feeding behaviors
Evolution and Adaptation
How animals have changed over time
Natural selection in action
Survival advantages
Species development
Animals in Ecosystems
The roles animals play in their habitats
Food webs and chains
Predator-prey relationships
Keystone species
Habitat interactions
Did You Know?
The heart of a shrimp is located in its head!
Some animals, like axolotls, can regenerate lost body parts, including parts of their brain.
Keep Exploring Animal Science
Ever notice how the more you learn about animals, the more questions you have? From the way a bird’s wings work to how an ant colony organizes itself, there’s always something new to discover. Want to dive deeper? Click on any animal group above to learn more about their unique biology, behaviors, and the roles they play in our world.
Whether you’re curious about the mammals in your backyard or the invertebrates in the ocean depths, there’s a fascinating world of animal science waiting for you to explore.