Science 7th
II UNIT
Lesson 8: Animal Kingdom
Animal kingdom
• Eukaryotic
• Multicellular
• Classified in mulltiple groups with unique characteristics
• Million Species identified
• Heterotrophic
• Motile
Zoology
• Etimologically Greek:
• Zoos meaning animal
• Logos meaning Science
• It’s the science that deals with or studies animals
Classification
• Divided in different phylum, classes and orders
• We have to main divisions:
• Invertebrates
• Vertebrates
Invertebrates
• Lack a vertebral column and articulated skeleton
• Some have external protection as exoskeleton
• A few have no external protection
• Classified in:
• Sponges • Cnidarians
• Worms • Mollusks
• Arthropods • Echinoderms
Sponges
• Aquatic animals
• Dense yet porous skeletons
• Inhabitants of coral reefs
• Affects water quality
• Filter water to collect bacteria, process carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus
• Protect the reef against extreme fluctuations in nutrient density,
temperature and light
• Their strong skeletal structures help sponges withstand the high volume
of water
Cnidarians
• Cnidarian or coelenterate
• Unique possessors of stinging cells called cnidocytes borne in
tentacles.
• Contain fluid filled capsules (nematocyst) with a harpoonlike coiled
thread used for stinging, paralyzing and capturing prey.
• No well defined separate respiratory, circulatory or excretory organs
• Have a coelenteron (gastrovascular cavity)
• Carnivorous
• Two basic forms: Polyp (Coral) and Medusa (jellyfish)
Worms
• From a variety of distantly related groups
• Include:
• Nematoda (roundworms)
• Platyhelminthes (Flatworms)
• Annelida (Earthworms)
Worms - Nematoda (Roundworms)
• Intestinal parasites
• Contagious through contact with infected stool of people or animals or
infected surfaces
• They include:
• Ascariasis:
• Mostly transmitted through poor hygiene
• Found in human feces
• Transmitted hand to mouth
• May cause: Abdominal pain, vomiting, restlessness, disturbed sleep
Worms - Nematoda (Roundworms)
• Hookworm:
• Passed by human feces onto the ground
• Transmitted by walking barefoot on contaminated soils
• May cause: Abdominal pain, intestinal cramps, colic, nausea and serious anemia
• Pinworm infection:
• Found in colon and rectum
• Develops from a pinworm egg
• Female deposits eggs around the anus
• May cause: Itching around the anus or vagina
Worms - Nematoda (Roundworms)
• Strongyloidiasis:
• Direct contact with contaminated soils
• Enter through human skin and makes its way to the intestines
• May cause: Burning in the abdomen, nausea, vomiting, alternating diarrhea and
constipation, anemia, weight loss, chronic diarrhea
• Pinworm infection:
• Found in colon and rectum
• Develops from a pinworm egg
• Female deposits eggs around the anus
• May cause: Itching around the anus or vagina
Worms - Nematoda (Roundworms)
• Trichinosis:
• Not an intestinal Infection, it affects muscle fibers
• Transmitted by eating uncooked sausage, pork, horse, walrus and bear meat
• May cause: Diarrhea, abdominal cramps, tiredness, muscle aches and pains, high fever,
swelling in eyes, face, eye infection and rashes.
• Whipworm:
• Contracted by encountering it on your hands, eating contaminated food
• Develops from a pinworm egg
• Third most common roundworm in humans
• May cause: Stomach pains, bloody stools, diarrhea, weight loss
Worms - Platyhelminths (Flatworms)
• 80% are parasitic
• Bilaterally symetrical
• They include:
• Trematoda:
• Called Flukes
• Classified as tissue flukes or blood flukes
• Turbellaria
• Free-living platyhelminths
• Found in marine or fresh water
• Monogea
• Live mainly in fish skin and gills
• Haptor (posterior attachment organ with hooks)
• Single host life cycle
Worms - Annelida
• Segmented worms
• Roughly 15000 species
• From 1mm to 3 meters
• They have a large coelom
• Closed circulatory system
• Excretory system consisting of tubular nephiridia
• Complete digestive system
• Have a brain
• Highly adaptive
• Regeneration: Regrow segments that break off
Mollusca (Mollusks)
• Soft segmented body usually enclosed in a calcareous shell-like
shellfish
• Three major groups:
• Gastropods
• Bivalves
• Cephalopods
• Gastropods
• Include snails and slugs
• Muscular foot used for creeping
Mollusca (Mollusks)
• Bivalves
• Pointed retractable “Foot” protruding from the shell
• Include mussels, clams, scallops and oysters.
• Cephalopods
• Most intelligent, mobile and largest of mollusks
• Includes: Squids, octopuses, cuttlefish, chambered nautilus
• Name comes from the Greek “headfoot” because feet are around the head
• Move by expelling water from a tubular siphon
• Highly developed eyes
• Ink sac
Arthropods
• Presence of multiple joints
• Chitin made exoskeleton for protection, locomotion, support, energy
storage and water loss prevention
• Segmentation
• Open Circulatory system
• Greater bending resistance
• Mechanically efficient due to the flexibility
• Able to change their exoskeleton by molting every time they grow
Arthropods
• Divided in four major groups
• Insects
• Myriapods (centipedes and millipedes)
• Arachnids (spiders, mites, scorpions)
• Crustaceans (slaters, prawn and crabs)
• Insects
• Three pairs of jointed legs
• Segmented bodies
• Exoskeleton
• Antennae
• One or two pairs of wings
• Vital to every ecosystem
• Pollinate plants and decompose plant and animal matter
Arthropods
• Myriapods
• Numerous similar segments with true jointed legs
• Divided in millipedes and centipedes
• Centipedes:
• Few more than 100 pair of legs
• Carnivorous
• Venomous claws
• Claws to stun or kill their prey
• Live under rocks or in the soil
Arthropods
• Millipedes:
• Each segment bears two pairs of legs
• Roll up into a ball when disturbed
• Secret toxic chemical when threatened
Arthropods
• Arachnids
• Horseshoe crabs, spiders, ticks and scorpions are part of this group
• Have a mouth part and two segments
• Four pair of walking legs
• Lack antennae and wings
• Bodies divided in cephalotorax and abdomen
• Two additional pair of appendages
• Chelicerae for feeding and defense
• Pedipals for feeding, moving and reproducing
Arthropods
• Arachnids
• Have internal breathing systems
• Several groups are venomous, they release venom from specialized glands
• Several mites are parasitic and disease carriers
• Lay eggs except scorpions that give birth to live young
Arthropods
• Crustaceans:
• Almost 52000 species
• Most are aquatic
• Dominant aquatic animals
• Exoskeleton may be bound together
• Main body cavity with an expanded circulatory system
• Digestive system in a straight tube with a gastric mill and glands to absorb
food
• Kidney-like structures to remove waste
• Brain in form of ganglia
• Periodically shed their exoskeleton to grow
Echinoderms
• Include starfish, sand dollars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers
• They have radial symmetry: a body arranged a central point.
• Internal skeleton and spins
• Unique water vascular system
• Very simple digestive, circulatory and nervous system
• Have no heart
• Amazing powers of regeneration
Vertebrates
• They have a vertebral column protecting the spinal cord
• A cranium protecting the brain
• Internal skeleton
• Defined head region with a brain
• Size ranges from 0.3 inches to 110 feet
• Classified in:
• Fish
• Amphibia
• Reptilia
• Aves
• Mammalia
Fish
• Ectothermic
• Covered with scales
• Two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins
• Streamlined body
• Aquatic vertebrates
• There are three classes of fish:
• Agnatha (Jawless fish)
• Chondrichthyes (Cartilaginous fish)
• Osteichthyes (Bony fish)
Amphibians
• Adapted to living both in land and water
• Larvae born from adults and live in water breathing through gills
• Adults live on land part of their lives breathing through the skin and
lungs
• Ectothermic vertebrates
• Classified in:
• Urodela: salamanders and newts
• Anura: Frogs and toads
• Apoda: Caecilians
Amphibians
• Skin that prevents loss of water
• Eyelids that allow them adapt to vision outside of the water
• Eardrum developed to separate the external ear from the middle ear
• A tail that disappears in adulthood (in frogs and toads)
Reptiles
• Tetrapods (Four-legged)
• Ectothermic
• Sense organs of reptiles, like ears, are well developed (snakes have no
external ears)
• Advanced eyesight
• Acute sense of smell
• Lizards and snakes smell with their tongues
• Skin covered in scales
Reptiles
• Amniotes: Embryos surrounded by thin membrane
• Reptile eggs are surrounded by protective shell either flexible or
inflexible
• Four living orders:
• Squamata: lizards, snakes, amphisbaenids
• Crocodila: Crocodiles, gharials, caimans and alligators
• Testudines: Turtles and tortoises
• Sphenodontia: Tuatara
Birds
• Almost all birds have forelimbs modified as wings
• Not all birds can fly
• Endothermic
• Two legs
• Lay eggs
• Range from 2 inch to 9 foot in size
• Unique digestive system with a gizzard that contains swallowed stones
for grinding food
• No teeth
Birds
• Feathers
• High metabolism hard-shelled eggs
• Four chambered heart
• Lightweight but strong skeleton
• Flexible neck bones
• Air-filled spaces in skeleton connected to their respiratory system
Mammals
• Endothermic
• Presence of hair or fur
• Sweat glands
• Glands specialized to produce milk, known as mammary glands
• Middle ear bones
• Neocortex region in the brain specialized in seeing and hearing
• Specialized teeth
• Four chambered heart
Mammals
• Viviparous
• Monotrems have bird and reptile like characteristics they lay eggs and
have a cloaca (platypus and echidnas)
• Marsupial mammals give birth to undeveloped embryos which climb
from the birth cannal to a pouch in the front of the mother’s body
where it continues to grow (kangaroos, koalas, wallabies and possums)
• The rest of mammals are placental mammals, their offspring develop
in mother’s uterus.
Animal reproduction
• During sexual reproduction, two parents are involved
• Male produces sperm
• Female produces eggs
• Animal often have gonads
• Testes produce sperm
• Ovaries produce eggs
Lesson 9: Ecology
Research in ecology
• It involves different fields as:
• Geology
• Geography
• Meteorology
• Genetics
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Ecologist study biomes (communities of plants and animals)
Branches of Ecology
• Evolutionary ecology: studies evolution in current organism
populations.
• Taxonomic ecology: It has to do with the ecology of the different
taxonomic groups of living organisms.
• Human Ecology: It deals with the ecology of the population or man
and the relationship between man and the environment.
• Applied Ecology: It deals with the application of the concepts or man
and the relationship between man and the environment.
Branches of Ecology
• Ecology of habitat. It is an ecological study of the different habitats on
planet earth and their effects on the organism.
• Community ecology: It has to do with the study of the local
distribution of animals in different habitats.
• Population ecology: It has to do with the study of the growth form,
structure and population regulation of organisms.
• Energetic ecology: It deals with the conservation of energy and its
flow in organisms within the ecosystem.
• Paleoecology: Study of the relationship between fossil animals and
their environment.
Ecosystems
• Trophic relationships
• Herbivory
• Parasitism
• Symbiotic Relationships
• Mutualism
• Facultative: Can live without each other
• Obligate: Need to be associated
• Commensalism
• Benefit one but don’t affect the other
• Competitive relationships
Research in ecology
• Two type of factors in environment:
• Abiotic: not living as sunlight, climate, soil, water and air
• Biotic: Organisms living or dead.
Biotic Factors
• Refers to flora or fauna and human beings
• Biotic factors must have a specific behavior in order to survive and
reproduce
• There are some competitions between living beings for food or space.
• They are formed by beings that have life. ◦ Some organisms are
producers of their own food, while others eat plants and animals
• They affect the population of other organisms, or the environment.
• They include everything concerning flora and fauna.
• There are three types of biotic factors
Types of Biotic Factors
• Producers:
• Have the ability to harness inorganic energy to be used as fuel for life
• Photo autotrophs use sunlight
• Chemo Autotrophs use hydrogen and iron to produce methane
• Consumer:
• Eat other living organisms for energy
• Herbivorous eat plants
• Carnivorous eat animals
• Omnivorous eat plants and animals
• Decomposers
• Break down the materials of other living beings into simple forms to be used again by
other organisms
Abiotic Factors
• Non-living part of the ecosystem that shapes its environment
• Chemical
• Minerals
• Salinity of water
• Soil Composition
• Air components
• Physicals
• Rain
• Sun
• Temperature
• Soil
• Atmospheric pressure
Importance of biotic and abiotic factors
• A healthy ecosystem has a balance of biotic examples; a large increase
or decrease in population of one species can impact many others.
• While abiotic factors are necessary to sustain life, biotic factors
interact with and can more easily create changes in the environment.
• Organisms require both biotic and abiotic factors to survive.
• Also, a deficit or abundance of either component can limit other
factors and influence an organism's survival.
Important terms
• Specie: a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals
capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding.
• Habitat: Set of physical and geographic factors that affect the
development of al individual, a population, a species or group of
species.
• Population: A group of individuals of the same species that live in
each area and are linked to a specific environment.
• Community: All the populations of organisms that inhabit common
environment and interact with each other.
Care for the environment
• Turn off the lights when not in use
• Reusable water bottles
• Recycling
• Repurposing
• Use natural detergents
