Category Animal World

               We all have seen dragons in movies. These huge and fearsome animals can fly and spit fire. Have such animals ever existed in the past? Scientists say that, if we forget the fire-spitting part, these animals resembled a flying reptile that lived a long time ago!

               The Archaeopteryx was a part reptile and part bird that lived 150 million years ago. This animal is a wonderful example of an in-between creature, which is neither a bird nor a reptile fully. Several fossils of this reptile-bird have been found in fine-grained stone. The skeleton look like that of a dinosaur but it shows the presence of feathers. Feathers are the most important feature of birds and they have evolved from the scales of reptiles. The archaeopteryx had a toothed jaw, a long tail and a weak breastbone. Unlike the bones of birds, all the bones of birds, all the bones of the archaeopteryx were solid.

               Do you know there is an uncanny connection between the cuckoo and the crocodile? The feathers of the archaeopteryx tell us that the crocodile, in fact, is related to the cuckoo.

What do we know about the archaeopteryx?

               The first bird to inhabit the Earth is believed to be the archaeopteryx (meaning ‘ancient wing’). It was a cat-sized bird, with several reptilian features. It had a beak containing sharp teeth, claws on its wings, and a long tail with bones in the middle. They had wings, feathers and a furcula. The furcula, or wish bone in birds, is a forked bone that joins the right and left shoulder joints. Not much is known about this bird’s direct ancestors or descendants.

                  Have you noticed the long thin teeth of squirrels and mice? In their representations in comics and cartoons, their incisors are portrayed as their distinctive feature. Remember the squirrel of the movie, Ice World!

                  Squirrels and mice belong to the family of rodents. Rodents are the largest family of mammals. They are also known as ‘gnawing animals’ because of their large incisor teeth and the way they eat. The two long pairs of incisors are used like chisels to gnaw on hard food items like nuts and wood. These incisors grow continuously since they are worn down by gnawing.

                  There are three major types of rodents. They are squirrels, mice and porcupines. Squirrel-like rodents such as the squirrel and gopher have bushy long tails and large eyes. They live in trees or underground in tunnels. Mouse-like rodents include the mouse, the rat and the hamster. Rats and mice often live near humans, sometimes in their buildings, so they can live off human food and garbage. Porcupines differ from other mammals because they have long, sharp quills on their backs for protection. The smallest rodent is the northern pygmy mouse, which is only 2.5 centimetres long, while the biggest is the capybara of South and Central America, which measures up to 1.2 metres in length.

                  The animals that we know have certain distinct features that help us identify them. The erect ears of a rabbit, the trunk of an elephant, the tail of a monkey or the shining eyes of a cat are such features that separate them from other animals. What would we call it if an odd animal gets some of the distinctive features of other animals?

                  The aardvark is a mammal found on the African continent. The name ‘aardvark’ means “earth pig” in Afrikaans as it refers to its resemblance to a pig and to its habit of digging the earth. The aardvark is very strange looking animal indeed. Though it has the body of a pig, it has the ears of a rabbit and a tail of a kangaroo! The animal hunts at night for termites and ants. It uses its long, sticky tongue to gather the insects from their nests, as anteaters do. Therefore, the mammal is really like a jigsaw of different animal parts put together!

Picture credit: google

                  We know that teeth are essential to eat food. Not all the teeth in our mouth have the same function, though. We use the teeth in front of our mouth for shredding and cutting hard substances such as meat. Those at the back are generally used for chewing food.

                  Some mammals, however, have no teeth at all. Some, on the other hand, have very weak teeth. These are called ‘toothless mammals’. Sloths, anteaters and armadillos belong to this group. Some toothless mammals have small ‘pegs’ at the back of their mouths, which they use for chewing. They do not have frontal teeth to bite into things.

                  In fact, these mammals do not need frontal teeth, since they either lap up their food or slowly chew leaves. Anteaters lap up and chew soft-bodied insects like ants and termites, while sloths eat leaves and fruits, which require only gentle chewing. Though armadillos are ‘toothless’ they manage to eat earthworms, insects, small reptiles as well as the flesh of dead animals.

Picture credit: google

                  Human beings generally stay in a place for a long time. However, many animals live in the same place for a short period of time and move on to another place.

                  Some animals, including mammals, migrate or travel long distances in search of warmer climates and food or for reproduction. Some travel from one part of the world to another, past oceans, over plains or through the sky on a definite route. There are species that travel thousands of miles every year, while others make the trip just once in their lifetime.

                  Many mammals spend spring and summer in the cool northern hemisphere. During autumn and winter, when food becomes scarce, they move south in search of a warmer climate and more abundant supply of food.

                  Mammals also move from one place to another for the purposes of mating, gestation, birth and raising their young. Many ocean mammals travel thousands of miles to reach their traditional breeding grounds. For example, grey whales spend their winter in sheltered lagoons off the coast of California, where their young are born. One of the largest caribou herds in North America, on the other hand, travels up to 5,000 kilometres each year in a journey to reach its ancient calving grounds and then it goes back south to its winter range.

                  Marine biologists have now found that the mammal that has the longest migration is the humpback whale. The humpback whale is known to travel from Central America to its feeding grounds in Antarctica – a whooping distance of over 8000 kilometres!

Picture credit: google

                  We all know that the primary purpose of our clothes is to protect our bodies from cold or warm climates. However, what do animals do, since they do not wear clothes? The thick fur coat on their body helps them keep their body warm.

                  Mammals are the only animals with hair. A mammal’s hair, also called fur, protects it from wind, rain, sun, cold, insects, and other dangers. Most mammals have a fur coat with two distinct layers-an undercoat of shorter dense hair and an outer coat of longer stiffer hairs.

                  Hair helps mammals in many other ways too. The hair colour of many mammals blends with the animals’ surroundings; and therefore, helps them hide from their enemies or prey. The coat keeps out the cold and helps to keep the animal warm. It also serves to protect the skin. Hair can take on several different forms including fur, whiskers, spines, or horns. It can be kinky or straight, soft or bristly, stiff or smooth.

                  Do you know that the polar bear has fur on the pads of its feet, both to keep its feet warm and to help it get a good grip on icy surfaces? The hairs of its thick waterproof coat are hollow, which means that air is trapped inside each strand of hair. The trapped air holds in body heat and helps the bear float when it swims too.