Portal:Animals

The Animals Portal

Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (/ˌænɪˈmɑːliə/). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a hollow sphere of cells, the blastula, during embryonic development. Animals form a clade, meaning that they arose from a single common ancestor.

Over 1.5 million living animal species have been described, of which around 1.05 million are insects, over 85,000 are molluscs, and around 65,000 are vertebrates. It has been estimated there are as many as 7.77 million animal species on Earth. Animal body lengths range from 8.5 μm (0.00033 in) to 33.6 m (110 ft). They have complex ecologies and interactions with each other and their environments, forming intricate food webs. The scientific study of animals is known as zoology, and the study of animal behaviors is known as ethology.

Most living animal species belong to the infrakingdom Bilateria, a highly proliferative clade whose members have a bilaterally symmetric body plan. The vast majority belong to two large superphyla: the protostomes, which includes organisms such as the arthropods, molluscs, flatworms, annelids and nematodes; and the deuterostomes, which include the echinoderms, hemichordates and chordates, the latter of which contains the vertebrates. The simple Xenacoelomorpha have an uncertain position within Bilateria. (Full article...)

Zoology (/zoʊˈɒlədʒi/ zoh-OL-ə-jee) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one of the primary branches of biology. The term is derived from Ancient Greek ζῷον, zōion ('animal'), and λόγος, logos ('knowledge', 'study'). (Full article...)

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Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations. The first seabirds evolved in the Cretaceous period, and modern seabird families emerged in the Paleogene.

Seabirds generally live longer, breed later and have fewer young than other birds, but they invest a great deal of time in their young. Most species nest in colonies, varying in size from a few dozen birds to millions. Many species are famous for undertaking long annual migrations, crossing the equator or circumnavigating the Earth in some cases. They feed both at the ocean's surface and below it, and even on each other. Seabirds can be highly pelagic, coastal, or in some cases spend a part of the year away from the sea entirely. (Full article...)

Selected pictures

  • Photo: Richard Bartz
    A macro view of a Gonia capitata fly feeding on honey, showing its proboscis and pedipalps (the two appendages protruding from the proboscis), two types of insect mouthparts. The proboscis actually comprises the labium, a quadrupedal structure, and a sponge-like labellum at the end. Flies eat solid food by secreting saliva and dabbing it over the food item. As the saliva dissolves the food, the solution is then drawn up into the mouth as a liquid. The labellum's surface is covered by minute food channels which form a tube leading to the esophagus, and food is drawn up the channels by capillary action.
  • Photo: Wolfgang Wander
    A female Calliope Hummingbird (Stellula calliope), the smallest bird found in Canada and the United States, feeding insects to chicks. Found mostly in western North America (although vagrants have been found in New York and Connecticut), it is migratory and winters in southwestern Mexico.
  • Credit: Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur (1904)
    The flatworms, flat worms, Platyhelminthes, or platyhelminths (from the Greek πλατύ, platy, meaning "flat" and ἕλμινς (root: ἑλμινθ-), helminth-, meaning "worm") are a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegmented, soft-bodied invertebrates. Being acoelomates (having no body cavity), and having no specialised circulatory and respiratory organs, they are restricted to having flattened shapes that allow oxygen and nutrients to pass through their bodies by diffusion. The digestive cavity has only one opening for both ingestion (intake of nutrients) and egestion (removal of undigested wastes); as a result, the food can not be processed continuously. (Full article...)
  • Photo: Mila Zinkova
    The Peacock flounder (Bothus mancus) is a species of lefteye flounder found widely in relatively shallow waters in the Indo-Pacific. This photomontage shows four separate views of the same fish, each several minutes apart, starting from the top left. Over the course of the photos, the fish changes its colors to match its new surroundings, and then finally (bottom right) buries itself in the sand, leaving only the eyes protruding.
  • Photograph: Alexander Vasenin
    The maxima clam (Tridacna maxima) is a species of bivalve found throughout the Indo-Pacific. It is found on the surface of reefs or sand, or partly embedded in coral (as with this specimen), in the oceans surrounding east Africa, India, China, Australia, Southeast Asia and the islands of the Pacific. This clam is much sought after in the aquarium trade, as its often striking coloration—the result of crystalline pigment—mimics that of the true giant clam.
  • Photo: H. Zell
    Cymbiola nobilis is a species of sea snail in the family Volutidae. Found in the Pacific Ocean, from Taiwan to Singapore, it averages 6 centimetres (2.4 in) in length; females are larger than males. Because the shell is commonly collected, there has been an overharvesting of the snail, and it is now considered vulnerable.
  • Photograph: Nick Hobgood
    Caesio teres is a pelagic marine fish belonging to the family Caesionidae. Widely distributed throughout the tropical waters of the Indian and western Pacific Ocean, this species feeds on zooplankton. It can grow to 40 cm (16 in) in length.
  • Credit: Frank Fox
    The rotifers (/ˈroʊtɪfərz/, from the Latin rota, "wheel", and -fer, "bearing"), commonly called wheel animals or wheel animalcules, make up a phylum (Rotifera /roʊˈtɪfərə/) of microscopic and near-microscopic pseudocoelomate animals. (Full article...)
  • Credit: Twilight Zone Expedition Team 2007, NOAA-OE
    Sponges (also known as sea sponges), the members of the phylum Porifera (/pəˈrɪfərəˌ pɔː-/ pər-IF-ər-ə, por-; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells. (Full article...) Included are the yellow tube sponge, Aplysina fistularis, the purple vase sponge, Niphates digitalis, the red encrusting sponge, Spirastrella coccinea, and the gray rope sponge, Callyspongia sp.
  • Photo: Nick Hobgood
    The Emperor shrimp (Periclimenes imperator) is a species of shrimp with a wide distribution across the Indo-Pacific. It lives commensally on a number of hosts, including sea cucumbers (Bohadschia argus shown here).
  • Photo credit: NASA
    The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is a medium large raptor which is a specialist fish-eater with a worldwide distribution. It is often known by other colloquial names such as Fish Hawk, Sea Hawk or Fish Eagle.

    The Osprey is particularly well adapted to its diet, with reversible outer toes, closable nostrils to keep out water during dives, and backwards facing scales on the talons which act as barbs to help catch fish.
  • Credit: Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur (1904)
    Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary colonies. Typically about 0.5 millimetres (1⁄64 in) long, they have a special feeding structure called a lophophore, a "crown" of tentacles used for filter feeding. Most marine bryozoans live in tropical waters, but a few are found in oceanic trenches and polar waters. The bryozoans are classified as the marine bryozoans (Stenolaemata), freshwater bryozoans (Phylactolaemata), and mostly-marine bryozoans (Gymnolaemata), a few members of which prefer brackish water. 5,869 living species are known. Originally all of the crown group Bryozoa were colonial, but as an adaptation to a mesopsammal (interstitial spaces in marine sand) life or to deep‐sea habitats, secondarily solitary forms have since evolved. Solitary species has been described in four genera; Aethozooides, Aethozoon, Franzenella and Monobryozoon). The latter having a statocyst‐like organ with a supposed excretory function. (Full article...)
  • Photo: Steve Ross, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration
    The redeye gaper (Chaunax stigmaeus) is a sedentary species of anglerfish native to deep waters in the western North Atlantic from the Georges Bank off New England southward to the Blake Plateau off South Carolina. It is a sedentary ambush predator that spends most of its time resting on the sea floor on its pectoral and pelvic fins, moving only to capture prey or avoid predators.
  • Photograph: Gabriel Barathieu
    The sperm whale is the largest toothed animal on Earth. The species was hunted extensively by humans throughout history, until protected by a worldwide moratorium on whaling starting in 1985–86.
  • Photo: JJ Harrison
    The Common Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) is the largest possum species and is perhaps the most widespread mammal in Australia. It grows to about 32–58 cm (13–23 in) in length, with an additional 24–40 cm (9–16 in) for its prehensile tail (seen here hanging below the branch). It is mainly a folivore, but has been known to eat small mammals such as rats. It is common in cities, having adapted well to human habitation.
  • Credit: Hans Hillewaert
    Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (from Latin ophiurus 'brittle star'; from Ancient Greek ὄφις (óphis) 'serpent', and οὐρά (ourá) 'tail'; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locomotion. The ophiuroids generally have five long, slender, whip-like arms which may reach up to 60 cm (24 in) in length on the largest specimens. (Full article...)
  • Photograph credit: Frank Schulenburg
    The brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) is a bird of the pelican family, Pelecanidae, one of three species found in the Americas and one of two that feed by diving into water. This photograph shows a juvenile brown pelican gliding over the Pacific Ocean at Bodega Head, California.

    After hatching, the pelican chicks are fed on regurgitated predigested fish and take about two months to fledge. When they leave the nest, they are at first unable to fly and take wing several weeks later. When the parents cease to feed them, some six months later, each will have consumed around 70 kg (150 lb) of fish. The juvenile brown pelican does not acquire adult plumage until three years of age, when the feathers on the neck become paler, the upperparts striped, the wing feathers grayer, and the belly acquires dark spots.
  • Photograph: Steve Childs
    Nembrotha cristata is a colourful species of sea slug. This nudibranch, a marine gastropod in the family Polyceridae, lives on rocks or coral reefs in the tropical Indo-West Pacific Ocean. This species of sea slug is black with green markings. Adults reach lengths of around 50 mm.
  • Photograph: Didier Descouens
    A black-lip oyster (Pinctada margaritifera) specimen. This species of clam in the genus Pinctada is a marine bivalve mollusc that is harvested for its pearls in the Persian Gulf and southwestern part of the Indian Ocean, Fiji, Tahiti, Myanmar, Baja California, and the Gulf of Mexico.
  • Diagram: K.D. Schroeder
    A lateral (left side) anatomical diagram of an adult-stage nematode hermaphrodite Caenorhabditis elegans (full size) with emphasis on the digestive and reproductive systems. C. elegans is a free-living, transparent nematode (roundworm) which measures about 1 millimetre (0.039 in) in length. The hermaphrodite form, as seen here, is the most common, although a male form is also found. When self-inseminated, the species will lay about 300 eggs, but when the hermaphrodite is inseminated by a male, the number of progeny can exceed 1,000.

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George Went Hensley (May 2, 1881 – July 25, 1955) was an American Pentecostal minister best known for popularizing the practice of snake handling. A native of rural Appalachia, Hensley experienced a religious conversion around 1910: on the basis of his interpretation of scripture, he came to believe that the New Testament commanded all Christians to handle venomous snakes.

Hensley was part of a large family that had moved between Tennessee and Virginia, before settling in Tennessee shortly after his birth. Following his conversion, he traveled through the Southeastern United States, teaching a form of Pentecostalism that emphasized strict personal holiness and frequent contact with venomous snakes. Although illiterate, he became a licensed minister of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) in 1915. After traveling through Tennessee for several years conducting Church of God-sanctioned services, he resigned from the denomination in 1922. Hensley was married four times and fathered thirteen children. He had many conflicts with his family members because of his drunkenness, frequent travels, and inability to earn steady income, factors cited by his first three wives as reasons for their divorces. (Full article...)
List of selected articles

Did you know -


  • ...that six new species of marine slugs in the genus Phyllodesmium (Sp. kabiranum pictured) have been described in the last two years?
  • ...that Maui's dolphin is the most endangered species of dolphin in the world, with only about 110 left?
  • ...that the land snail Euglandina rosea is a significant threat to Hawaiian freshwater snail known as Newcomb's snail (Erinna newcombi), because the predatory Euglandina is able to hunt Erinna under water?
  • ...that the body of the "X-ray fish" (Pristella maxillaris ) is so transparent that it is possible to see its backbone?
  • ...that even though the lancelets are classified as chordates, they lack a true backbone and well-defined head?


General pictures

The following are images from various animal-related articles on Wikipedia.

Topics

The following table lists estimated numbers of described extant species for the animal groups with the largest numbers of species,[1] along with their principal habitats (terrestrial, fresh water,[2] and marine),[3] and free-living or parasitic ways of life.[4] Species estimates shown here are based on numbers described scientifically; much larger estimates have been calculated based on various means of prediction, and these can vary wildly. For instance, around 25,000–27,000 species of nematodes have been described, while published estimates of the total number of nematode species include 10,000–20,000; 500,000; 10 million; and 100 million.[5] Using patterns within the taxonomic hierarchy, the total number of animal species—including those not yet described—was calculated to be about 7.77 million in 2011.[6][7][lower-alpha 1]

Phylum Example No. of
Species		 Land Sea Fresh
water		 Free-
living		 Parasitic
Annelids 17,000[1] Yes (soil)[3] Yes[3] 1,750[2] Yes 400[4]
Arthropods 1,257,000[1] 1,000,000
(insects)[9]		 >40,000
(Malac-
ostraca)[10]		 94,000[2] Yes[3] >45,000[lower-alpha 2][4]
Bryozoa 6,000[1] Yes[3] 60–80[2] Yes
Chordates 65,000[1]
45,000[11]
23,000[11]
13,000[11]		 18,000[2]
9,000[11]		 Yes 40
(catfish)[12][4]
Cnidaria 16,000[1] Yes[3] Yes (few)[3] Yes[3] >1,350
(Myxozoa)[4]
Echinoderms 7,500[1] 7,500[1] Yes[3]
Molluscs 85,000[1]
107,000[13]
35,000[13]
60,000[13]		 5,000[2]
12,000[13]		 Yes[3] >5,600[4]
Nematodes 25,000[1] Yes (soil)[3] 4,000[5] 2,000[2] 11,000[5] 14,000[5]
Platyhelminthes 29,500[1] Yes[14] Yes[3] 1,300[2] Yes[3]

3,000–6,500[15]

 >40,000[4]

4,000–25,000[15]

Rotifers 2,000[1] >400[16] 2,000[2] Yes
Sponges 10,800[1] Yes[3] 200-300[2] Yes Yes[17]
Total number of described extant species as of 2013: 1,525,728[1]

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References

  1. The application of DNA barcoding to taxonomy further complicates this; a 2016 barcoding analysis estimated a total count of nearly 100,000 insect species for Canada alone, and extrapolated that the global insect fauna must be in excess of 10 million species, of which nearly 2 million are in a single fly family known as gall midges (Cecidomyiidae).[8]
  2. Not including parasitoids.[4]
  1. Zhang, Zhi-Qiang (2013-08-30). "Animal biodiversity: An update of classification and diversity in 2013. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal Biodiversity: An Outline of Higher-level Classification and Survey of Taxonomic Richness (Addenda 2013)". Zootaxa. 3703 (1): 5. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3703.1.3. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  2. Balian, E. V.; Lévêque, C.; Segers, H.; Martens, K. (2008). Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment. Springer. p. 628. ISBN 978-1-4020-8259-7.
  3. Hogenboom, Melissa. "There are only 35 kinds of animal and most are really weird". BBC Earth. Archived from the original on 10 August 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  4. Poulin, Robert (2007). Evolutionary Ecology of Parasites. Princeton University Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-691-12085-0.
  5. Felder, Darryl L.; Camp, David K. (2009). Gulf of Mexico Origin, Waters, and Biota: Biodiversity. Texas A&M University Press. p. 1111. ISBN 978-1-60344-269-5.
  6. "How many species on Earth? About 8.7 million, new estimate says". 24 August 2011. Archived from the original on 1 July 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  7. Mora, Camilo; Tittensor, Derek P.; Adl, Sina; Simpson, Alastair G.B.; Worm, Boris (2011-08-23). Mace, Georgina M. (ed.). "How Many Species Are There on Earth and in the Ocean?". PLOS Biology. 9 (8): e1001127. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001127. PMC 3160336. PMID 21886479.
  8. Hebert, Paul D.N.; Ratnasingham, Sujeevan; Zakharov, Evgeny V.; Telfer, Angela C.; Levesque-Beaudin, Valerie; Milton, Megan A.; Pedersen, Stephanie; Jannetta, Paul; deWaard, Jeremy R. (1 August 2016). "Counting animal species with DNA barcodes: Canadian insects". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 371 (1702): 20150333. doi:10.1098/rstb.2015.0333. PMC 4971185. PMID 27481785.
  9. Stork, Nigel E. (January 2018). "How Many Species of Insects and Other Terrestrial Arthropods Are There on Earth?". Annual Review of Entomology. 63 (1): 31–45. doi:10.1146/annurev-ento-020117-043348. PMID 28938083. S2CID 23755007. Stork notes that 1m insects have been named, making much larger predicted estimates.
  10. Poore, Hugh F. (2002). "Introduction". Crustacea: Malacostraca. Zoological catalogue of Australia. Vol. 19.2A. CSIRO Publishing. pp. 1–7. ISBN 978-0-643-06901-5.
  11. Reaka-Kudla, Marjorie L.; Wilson, Don E.; Wilson, Edward O. (1996). Biodiversity II: Understanding and Protecting Our Biological Resources. Joseph Henry Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-309-52075-1.
  12. Burton, Derek; Burton, Margaret (2017). Essential Fish Biology: Diversity, Structure and Function. Oxford University Press. pp. 281–282. ISBN 978-0-19-878555-2. Trichomycteridae ... includes obligate parasitic fish. Thus 17 genera from 2 subfamilies, Vandelliinae; 4 genera, 9spp. and Stegophilinae; 13 genera, 31 spp. are parasites on gills (Vandelliinae) or skin (stegophilines) of fish.
  13. Nicol, David (June 1969). "The Number of Living Species of Molluscs". Systematic Zoology. 18 (2): 251–254. doi:10.2307/2412618. JSTOR 2412618.
  14. Sluys, R. (1999). "Global diversity of land planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Terricola): a new indicator-taxon in biodiversity and conservation studies". Biodiversity and Conservation. 8 (12): 1663–1681. doi:10.1023/A:1008994925673. S2CID 38784755.
  15. Pandian, T. J. (2020). Reproduction and Development in Platyhelminthes. CRC Press. pp. 13–14. ISBN 9781000054903.
  16. Fontaneto, Diego. "Marine Rotifers | An Unexplored World of Richness" (PDF). JMBA Global Marine Environment. pp. 4–5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 March 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  17. Morand, Serge; Krasnov, Boris R.; Littlewood, D. Timothy J. (2015). Parasite Diversity and Diversification. Cambridge University Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-107-03765-6. Archived from the original on 12 December 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
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