30 What Is Life?
Vertebrates Key facts
The animal kingdom contains two main subgroups: ✓ Vertebrates are animals with an internal
vertebrates and invertebrates. Vertebrates have skeleton of bone or cartilage.
backbones and an internal skeleton made ✓ There are seven classes of vertebrates.
of bone or cartilage. ✓ Each class of vertebrate has key
characteristics.
Vertebrate classification
There are seven classes of vertebrates,
and each class has certain characteristic
features, as shown here.
Mammals Birds Reptiles
• Give birth to live young
• Feed their young on milk made • Feathers cover body • Leathery scales cover body
in mammary glands
• Lay hard-shelled eggs • Lay shelled eggs
• Have hair or fur
• Maintain a constant body • Body temperature usually varies
• Maintain a constant body temperature with surroundings
temperature
Amphibians Three classes of fish:
Jawless fish Cartilaginous fish Bony fish
• Lay soft eggs, usually in water
• Young (tadpoles) tend to be
a different shape from adults
• Gills, moist skin, or lungs for
gas exchange • Gills for gas exchange • Gills • Gills
• Body temperature varies • No bony jaws • Skeleton of cartilage • Skeleton of bone
with surroundings • Skeleton of cartilage
Birds and dinosaurs
Dinosaurs are a group of reptiles that
appeared more than 200 million years
Many
ago. Evidence from fossils now shows that dinosaurs
many dinosaurs had feathers and other had feathers
characteristics of birds, so birds are for insulation
believed to have evolved from dinosaurs. and display.
Citipati
What Is Life? 31
Invertebrates Key facts
More than 95 percent of the animal species ✓ Invertebrates are animals that do not have
on Earth are invertebrates—animals that do not a backbone.
have a backbone. They are usually smaller than ✓ Arthropods are invertebrates that have a
vertebrates and have a wide variety of body forms. tough exoskeleton and jointed limbs.
✓ The arthropod group includes myriapods,
insects, arachnids, and crustacea.
Arthropod classification
One category (phylum) of invertebrates is the
arthropods, which contains several subgroups, as
shown here. Arthropods have a tough exoskeleton
and jointed limbs and antennae.
Myriapods Insects Arachnids Crustacea
Mostly millipedes and Includes bees, wasps, Includes spiders, ticks, Large group including crabs,
centipedes ants, and butterflies and scorpions shrimps, and woodlice
• Body of many • Three main body • Two main body • Body consists of head,
similar segments parts parts thorax, and segmented
abdomen
• Many pairs of legs • Three pairs of • Four pairs of
jointed legs jointed legs • Usually five pairs
of legs but may
have more
Insects in the ecosystem
Insects play many important roles in the ecosystem, but one
of the most important is pollinating flowering plants. This is
a mutualistic relationship—insects get food from the flower
(usually nectar), while also helping the plant reproduce by
carrying pollen between flowers. This leads to the fertilization
of flowers and the formation of seeds.
Butterflies feed on
nectar from flowers.
32 What Is Life?
Plants Key facts
The plant kingdom is divided into many groups, ✓ Two major groups of the plant kingdom
depending on particular characteristics. Two of the are seed plants and spore plants.
major groups are seed plants and spore plants. ✓ Monocots are a group of flowering
plants that have parallel veins in
their leaves and fibrous roots.
Groups of plants ✓ Dicots are a group of flowering
The type of life cycle helps determine how plants that have netlike veins and
a plant is classified. Some plants, such as a taproot structure.
mosses and ferns, grow from tiny structures
called spores. Other plants grow from larger, ✓ Ferns produce spores instead of
seeds, and the leaves of ferns are
more complex structures called seeds.
Some seed plants produce their seeds inside called fronds.
cones, but most produce them in flowers.
Coniferous plants Flowering plants Spore plants
Coniferous plants produce their seeds Flowering plants produce seeds in Ferns produce their spores in tiny capsules
in cones. These plants usually have flowers. Some flowering plants are that grow on the underside of their leaves,
needlelike leaves. They include some called monocots. These usually which are sometimes called fronds.
of the tallest trees on the planet. have narrow straplike leaves, like
grasses and palms. Others are
dicots with broader leaves that
Needlelike have a network of veins. Spore
leaves capsules
Flower parts are Fronds growing
usually in multiples straight from
of four or five. the ground
This is an
example of a
dicot flower.
Cone
Root system
Netlike branching
veins from large Simple fibrous
main taproot root system
