Know How to Group Animals

The Animal Kingdom is made up of two main groups: vertebrates and invertebrates.

 

Vertebrates are animals that possess a backbone (or spine) which, with their skeleton, supports the whole body.

 

There are five main groups of vertebrates:

 

 

Fish: live in water with (often) a scaly skin, breathing with gills and swimming with fins.

Amphibians: lay their eggs in water, hatching into tadpoles which grow into air-breathing animals with a moist smooth skin.

Reptiles: air-breathing animals with a scaly skin that lay their eggs on land.

Birds: egg-laying animals with feathers.

Mammals: often covered with fur, mammals are 'warm-blooded' and give birth to live young which they suckle with milk.

 

Invertebrates are animals without backbones and there are millions of different sorts on our planet. 

 

Many have a hard 'shell' on the outside which gives them their shape (it's proper name is an exoskeleton), and a soft inside.

 

 

Insects are invertebrates which have a hard outside and a soft inside (that means that they go 'scrunch, then squish' when you step on one by mistake - yuk!).

 

 

Some invertebrates have a soft inside and a soft outside:

 

 

OK, so it's time to find out more about the animal life on our planet, what they're like and how they are sorted into groups. 

 

Let's get sorting!