Animals

Animals are multicellular organisms that belong to the class Animalia. Animals have a fixed body plan as they develop and later in their life they might undergo the process called as Metamorphosis. Animals in the world are motile, meaning they are capable of independent locomotion. The fossil records show that the animals are found on the earth over 542 million years ago. Mostly all the animals have different stages in their life cycle. For example the life cycle of the frog is: Egg -> Tadpoles -> Frog And life cycle of the butterfly is: Egg -> Pupa -> Butterfly 28

Characteristics of animals
Species that belong to the animal's class have different characteristics. They are:

Body of the animals can be covered with fur, scales, skin, and feathers. The shape of the body is different from one species to another and they might have one or more body parts. Depending on the animal species they might have 2, 4, 6, or 8 legs. Some species might don't have legs at all. The mode of locomotion might be swimming, flying, walking and crawling.

Some more common characteristics of the animals are:

Depending on the structure of the animal cell all the animals are eukaryote. They are heterotrophs. Except sponges all animals are multicellular their bodies are build up of number of tissues. Each tissue in the body performs separate functions. All the animals have the ability to move from one place to another with the help of their locomotive organs. They are diploid. Most of the animals undergo sexual reproduction and only a few are capable of asexual reproduction All the animals in the world lack the rigid cells. Some animals have the habit of migrating from one place to another. They migrate to find a better habitat, to avoid unfavorable weather changes and in also for the search of food. Inconvenience. Most of the amphibians and reptiles estivate. That is they undergo a dormant state in their life during the hot and dry seasons. During estivation the animal's heart beat, breathing process and all other necessary process slows down. This decrease in the activity of the animal decreases the need of water thus helping the animal to survive on hot and dry periods.

Some animals hibernate to protect themselves against the cold season and to reduce their need for food. The body temperature of the hibernating animals is much lower than the normal ones. Camouflage is the process by which the animals blend to the natural environment to protect themselves.

Classification of animals:

Animals can be classified in different ways but the general classification can be easily done by their feeding habit. Animals are classified into four different categories by their eating habit.

The classifications are:

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