Amphibians
Amphibians are creatures that can live both on land and in water. They start their life as eggs, hatch into larvae with gills and tails and then go through a process called metamorphosis and become adults with lungs and legs for life on land. This book tells you about where they live, how they look, what they eat and more.
Amphibians have the following characteristics :
1. They have backbones
2. They are cold-blooded and depend on the surroundings for maintaining body temperature
3. They can breathe through their skins
4. They are both predators and prey in the food chain
There are about 7000 species of amphibians that include frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and caecilians.
Reptiles
Reptiles are one of the six major groups of the animal kingdom that diverged from amphibians many million years ago. You can find interesting facts about them in this book. Here’s a quick look into reptiles.
1. Covered in scales for protection
2. Cold-blooded and rely on outside temperature to maintain their own temperature
3. Have lungs to breathe
4. Usually lay eggs but sometimes young ones
5. Have backbones
There are about 8000 species of reptiles that include snakes, crocodiles, tortoises, alligators and lizards.
How do we remember all those thousands of mammals?
Well, we can’t; but it doesn’t hurt to try! So, we begin by a process scientists and naturalists (people who study Nature) call ‘classification’. This means we build categories in which we place mammals, based on some common or similar traits they share.
So, this is how we do it :
l Kingdom
l Phylum
l Class
