Follow the different branches of this classification tree!
Planet earth is quite an amazing place, because it’f full of life. From creatures that are so small we can’t even see them, to creatures that are so huge they could squash a whole house.
Each different type of animals is called a species. And all species are related to each other. It’s like a very strange sort of family. It’s also a confusing family because there are millions of species on Earth.
How can we work out who’s related? That’s what classification is all about. It allows us to put all different species in groups, and work out in what way they’re related to each other based on similar features.
For instance - a dog and a lion, are they closely related? They’re different, but not that different. They’ve both got the same sort of body shape. And each has fur and feeds milk to their young. They both belong to the group called mammals.
What about a duck and a fly? Are they closely related? They both have wings, and they both lays eggs. But they aren’t the same things. The fly has six legs, the duck has two, Ducks have feathers, flies don’t. They don’t belong to the same group.
Animal groups
Animals can be divided into groups or 'classified' by looking at the similarities and differences between them.
Animals are divided into two main groups. Animals that have a backbone are called vertebrates. Animals that don't have a backbone are called invertebrates.
Vertebrates and invertebrates are divided into smaller groups. Vertebrates, for example, are divided into fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
There are many different groups of invertebrates too. They include invertebrates which have soft bodies such as jellyfish, worms and molluscs (like slugs and squids). There are also groups of invertebrates with hard bodies, such as insects, crustaceans and spiders.
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