#87: Use MS Word’s Diagrams to Teach Animal Characteristics Use MS Word to organize an animal group (reptiles, mammals, amphibians, etc.) and their traits. This project is a favorite with my students, mostly because of the stunning animal picture they get to embed into the background. –from 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom. Preview available on Amazon.com and Scribd.com If you can’t read this, send me an email at info@structuredlearning.net (they’ll forward it) and request a pdf copy Like this: Like Loading...
Dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, 231.4 million years ago, and were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for 135 million years, from the beginning of the Jurassic (about 201 million years ago) until the end of the Cretaceous (66 million years ago), when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of most dinosaur groups at the close of the Mesozoic Era. The fossil record indicates that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic Period and, consequently, they are considered a subgroup of dinosaurs by many paleontologists.[1] Some birds survived the extinction event that occurred 66 million years ago, and their descendants continue the dinosaur lineage to the present day.[2] Etymology Definition The common House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is often used to represent modern birds in definitions of the group Dinosauria General description Distinguishing anatomical features
Primates A primate ( With the exception of humans, which inhabit every continent,[a] most primates live in tropical or subtropical regions of the Americas, Africa and Asia.[5] They range in size from Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, which weighs only 30 g (1 oz), to the eastern lowland gorilla, weighing over 200 kg (440 lb). Based on fossil evidence, the earliest known true primates, represented by the genus Teilhardina, date to 55.8 million years old.[6] An early close primate relative known from abundant remains is the Late Paleocene Plesiadapis, circa 55–58 million years old.[7] Molecular clock studies suggest that the primate branch may be even older, originating in the mid-Cretaceous period around 85 mya.[7] Considered generalist mammals, primates exhibit a wide range of characteristics. Some primates (including some great apes and baboons) are primarily terrestrial rather than arboreal, but all species possess adaptations for climbing trees. Historical and modern terminology[edit]
What is a Mammal Mammals are animals. Yes but so are Insects, Reptiles, Spiders, Sponges and Slugs. We need to do better than that. Mammals have a back-bone.Yes but so do Fishes and Frogs and they are not mammals. Obviously, what we need in order to define a mammal are some characters, or traits that are possessed by all mammals and are unique to mammals, i.e. they do not occur in fishes and /slugs etc.. Character One The first characteristic that guarantees that an animal is a mammal is that it (if it is female) can produce milk to feed its young. Character Two The second test is the possession of hair, something humans often have problems with but which they should respect more. Character Three The lower jaw in mammals is a single bone on either side. Character Four The mammal middle ear, and only the mammal middle ear, contains 3 bones. Character Five In mammals the main artery leaving the heart curves to the left becoming the aortic arch. Character Six Finally mammals have a diaphragm. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Bird Modern birds are characterised by feathers, a beak with no teeth, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a lightweight but strong skeleton. Extant birds have wings; the most recent species without wings was the moa, which is generally considered to have become extinct in the 16th century. Wings are evolved forelimbs, and most bird species can fly. Flightless birds include ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. Some species of birds, particularly penguins and members of the Anatidae family, are adapted to swim. Many species are economically important, mostly as game or poultry. Evolution and classification Definition Aves and a sister group, the clade Crocodilia, contain the only living representatives of the reptile clade Archosauria. Gauthier[8] identified four conflicting ways of defining the term "Aves", which is a problem because the same biological name is being used four different ways. Dinosaurs and the origin of birds
Hominidae The Hominidae (/hɒˈmɪnɨdiː/; also known as great apes[notes 1]) form a taxonomic family of primates, including four extant genera: The term "hominid" is also used in the more restricted sense as hominins or "humans and relatives of humans closer than chimpanzees".[2] In this usage, all hominid species other than Homo sapiens are extinct. A number of known extinct genera are grouped with humans in the Homininae subfamily, others with orangutans in the Ponginae subfamily. The most recent common ancestor of the Hominidae lived roughly 14 million years ago,[3] when the ancestors of the orangutans speciated from the ancestors of the other three genera.[4] The ancestors of the Hominidae family had already speciated from those of the Hylobatidae family, perhaps 15 million to 20 million years ago.[4][5] History[edit] Taxonomic history[edit] The classification of the great apes has been revised several times in the last few decades. Especially close human relatives form a subfamily, the Homininae.
Cretaceous The Cretaceous (/krɨˈteɪʃəs/, krə-TAY-shəs), derived from the Latin "creta" (chalk), usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide (chalk), is a geologic period and system from circa 145 ± 4 to 66 million years (Ma) ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the Cenozoic era. It is the last period of the Mesozoic Era, and, spanning 79 million years, the longest period of the Phanerozoic Eon. Geology[edit] Key events in the Cretaceous An approximate timescale of key Cretaceous events. Research history[edit] Stratigraphic subdivisions[edit] As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds of the Cretaceous are well identified but the exact ages of the system's base is uncertain by a few million years. Rock formations[edit] The high eustatic sea level and warm climate of the Cretaceous meant a large area of the continents was covered by warm shallow seas. Paleogeography[edit] Climate[edit] Life[edit]
Hominini Through DNA comparison, scientists believe the Pan / Homo divergence occurred between 5.4 and 6.3 million years ago, after an unusual process of speciation that ranged over 4 million years.[5] Few fossil specimens on the Pan side of the split have been found, the first fossil chimpanzee discovery being published in 2005,[6] dating to between 545 ± 3 kyr (thousand years) and 284 ± 12 kyr via Argon-argon dating, from Kenya's East African Rift Valley. All of the extinct genera listed in the table to the right are ancestral to Homo, or are offshoots of such. However, both Orrorin and Sahelanthropus existed around the time of the split, and so may be ancestral to all three extant species. In the proposal of Mann and Weiss (1996),[7] the tribe Hominini includes Pan as well as Homo, but within separate subtribes. See also[edit] References[edit]