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Animals

Animals live on the earth more than 542 million years ago. Animals belong to the class Animalia and they are multicellular organisms. Except a few all the animals have a fixed body parts. During their life cycle they undergo a process called as Metamorphosis. All the animals are capable of independent locomotion.

Most of the animals have different stages in their life cycle. For example you can see the life cycle of a butterfly as:

Egg -> Larva -> Pupa -> Butterfly

In the same way the life cycle of a frog can be described as:

Egg -> Tadpoles -> Frog

Characteristics of animals

Here are some of the common characteristics of the animals:

• Animals are Eukaryote
• They are heterotrophs
• Except sponges all the other animals are multicellular organisms
• Animal’s body is covered with fur, scales, skin, and feathers
• Animals might have 2, 4, 6, or 8 legs. But some animals do not have legs at all
• Animals can swim, walk, fly, and crawl
• Animals are diploid
• Animals lack rigid cells
• Animals migrate from one place to the other. (Migration is the process of moving from one place to the other in search of food, better habitat and to avoid unfavorable climatic conditions)
• Some animals hibernate. (Hibernation is the name of the process where the animals are found sleeping thorough the cold season)

Classification of animals

Depending on the eating habit animals can be classified into the following four classifications. They are:

• Carnivores (meat eaters)
• Herbivores (plant eaters)
• Omnivores (both meat and plant eaters)
• Insectivores (insect eaters)

Further the animals can be classified into the following depending on the species they belong. They are:

• Birds
• Fish
• Mammals
• Reptiles
• Amphibians