FINDING AN ANIMAL
EXPLORE ANIMAL BIODIVERSITY IN YOUR SURROUNDING AREA
Overview
Mollusca: Snails, slugs (like the ones shown in Figure 1, below), bivalves (like
clams and oysters), squid, and octopus are all mollusks. It is some people's
personal favorite phylum to serve for dinner. Some mollusks have shells and
others are shell-free, though mollusks are commonly referred to as "shellfish."
Arthropoda: Arthropods are one of the most common phyla and include
insects (like beetles, butterflies, flies, bees, wasps, ants, and grasshoppers, like
the one shown in Figure 2, below), centipedes, millipedes, spiders, scorpions,
shrimp, lobsters, crayfish, pill bugs (like the ones shown in Figure 3, below),
and many more. All arthropods are invertebrates, which means they have an
external skeleton called an exoskeleton. An arthropod's exoskeleton sheds as
the arthropod grows by molting. See Figure 2 and Figure 3, below, for
pictures of some common arthropods.
Echinodermata: This is a favorite phylum when visiting tide pools, and
includes starfish, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers. All echinoderms have 5-
part symmetry, just like a star (technically, this type of symmetry is called
pentamerism).
Chordata: This phylum is the most well-known one, even though it is quite
small, because all vertebrate animals are also chordates. (Vertebrates are
typically animals that have a spinal column.). It is the phylum we belong to,
along with most of our pets (dogs, cats, rabbits, rats, fish, frogs, salamanders),
farm animals (cows, pigs, lamb, chickens), and zoo animals (zebra, lion, tiger,
panda, giraffe, polar bear, etc.).
"READING THROUGH THE LENS OF STEAM"
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Vocabulary
Biodiversity: all the different kinds of life you’ll find in one area—the variety of
animals, plants, fungi, and even microorganisms like bacteria that make up our
natural world. Each of these species and organisms work together in ecosystems,
like an intricate web, to maintain balance and support life. Biodiversity supports
everything in nature that we need to survive: food, clean water, medicine, and
shelter.
Invertebrates: animals without a backbone) (animals that lack a backbone)
Kingdom Animalia (or Animalia): a huge kingdom consisting of eukaryotic,
multicellular animals that are heterotrophic in nature.
Phylum: a level of classification or taxonomic rank below kingdom and above
class. A major group of animals sharing one or more fundamental characteristics
that set them apart from all other animals and forming a primary category of the
animal kingdom.
Taxonomy: the science of naming, describing and classifying organisms and
includes all plants, animals and microorganisms of the world. Using morphological,
behavioural, genetic and biochemical observations, taxonomists identify, describe
and arrange species into classifications, including those that are new to science.
Vertebrates: animals with a backbone