MAMMALS

Mammals



Mammals

Mammals fall in one of the sic main classes of animals. Animals classes consists of group of animals that resemble in some important ways. There are about 6000 species of mammals that can be classified into subclasses and further into 26 orders approximately. Mammals are essentially warm blooded, which means regardless of temperature being freezing cold or boiling hot, nature has sacred them with the ability to maintain just about the same temperature all the time. This particular trait allows mammals to be very active and live in a wide variety of places across the world. As opposed to other animals, all mammals have hairs on their bodies, three middle ear bones; malleus, incus, and stapes. Mammals are also different from other animals in an attribute that they feed their infants with the milk that females naturally produce in their body through modified sweat glands knows as mammary glands. Mammals can be found in almost every part of the world (Russell, 2006). Polar bears can be found in very cold areas, camels in hot areas while moles live under the ground. Bats use to live in caves and fly in the air; dolphins have their homes in oceans. Their body is protected by fur and fat while sweat or pant release extra heat if they reside in some toasty areas.

Characteristics of Kingdom Animalia

Animals are regarded as a major group of organisms, classified as the kingdom Animalia, also referred as Metazoa. There is large diversity observed within the kingdom Animalia, although there are certain characteristics that differentiates them from other kingdoms. Some of these characteristics may be found in other types of life but these characteristics as a whole distinguishes the members of animal kingdom from others.

Animals are essentially multi cellular organisms (having more than one cell), heterotrophic which implies that they obtain energy by consuming energy releasing substances (Russell, 2006). These substances intake however, can be classified into wide categories depending upon the type of animal. The key characteristic differentiating animals from others is that they reproduce sexually. They do not have cell walls since they are typically made up of cells and are capable of motion at some stages of lives. They are sanctified with the ability to respond to the external stimuli quickly because of nerve cells, muscle or contractile tissue, or sometimes both. We will examine and evaluate the varying characteristics of two mammals; rabbit and kangaroo.

Kangaroo

Kangaroo is the largest animal of group marsupial belonging to the family Macropodida. They can only be found in Australia and nowhere else and are known as 'ganguru' in their native language and is pronounced as Kangaroo in English (Miley Hearts Australia, 2011). Male kangaroos are called by Buck or Boom or Old Man while female is called by Doe or Flyer or Jill. Kangaroos posses the ability to survive without water for months and thus, are well espoused to desert. The species of Kangaroos mainly differ in their body size and coat color; they are 40 different ...