What can you expect?
This site is under continual development. Images of animals include both common and scientific names. The common name is an external link to more information. The color of the scientific name gives a clue to its conservation status (when available). I have included textual information on about one-third of the animals here. More will fill in over time. The information I include comes from the links I attach to the common name. Please also keep in mind I am a middle school science teacher, so this site is written from that perspective and level of understanding.
What is an animal?
As I teach my students, animals are multicellular eukaryotic organisms. If it stopped there, we would classify with plants and fungi. We can add two more characteristics that separate animals from plants and fungi: movement (we move; they don't) and consumption. Plants make their own food via photosynthesis. Fungi break down decaying organisms and absorb nutrients. Animals consume to get their nutrients.
Looking past the basic characteristics of animals, the world of animals is incredibly diverse ranging from the simplest invertebrates (sponges) to the most complex primates (look in a mirror).
Looking past the basic characteristics of animals, the world of animals is incredibly diverse ranging from the simplest invertebrates (sponges) to the most complex primates (look in a mirror).
A bit about taxonomy and phylogeny
Taxonomy is about grouping organisms with common organisms. Very similar Species might share a common Genus. Common genera share a Family, and so on up through Order, Class, Phylum, and Kingdom.
The scientific name for any organism is two terms: Genus species. Sometimes there are subspecies. If so, the scientific name will have three terms: Genus species subspecies.
The scientific name for any organism is two terms: Genus species. Sometimes there are subspecies. If so, the scientific name will have three terms: Genus species subspecies.
With further discoveries of new species as well as further understanding of relationships between species, more levels have appeared between the original seven levels using prefixes like 'super-', 'sub-', or 'infra-'. This has made the classification far more complex. Sifting through sites assembling the information into a cohesive picture has been challenging.
Phylogeny is about showing the organization of species based on shared characteristics. In the example on the right, different groups of animals are more closely related than others. For example, Genera B and C are more closely related to each other than to genus D. Genus A is the least common of the four.
This website is not arranged according the phylogenic tree of animals. On my pages, genera A-D will all list alphabetically with complete disregard to how closely or distantly they are related. While I chose not to replicate the structure of the phylogenic tree, studying phylogeny gives a far better understanding of how species relate to each other. |
Conservation status
Each animal has both a common and scientific name. In the web version of this site, the color of the scientific name also shows its conservation status (when available). Either the standard status or the G-Ranking may show up here.
No information
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GU
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No data available or too small a sample
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Domesticated
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Animals with a close relationship with humans (see Domestication)
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Least Concern
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G5
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Widespread with no near threat
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Near Threatened
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G4
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Likely to become endangered in the near future
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Vulnerable
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G3
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High risk of becoming endangered in the near future
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Endangered
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G2
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High risk of extinction in the near future
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Critically Endangered
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G1
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Extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future
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Extinct in the Wild
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GX
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There is no free-living natural population
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Additional common names are in bold within the description of that species.
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