So Green: Vertebrates

Animals can be classified into 2 groups.

The Vertebrates are animals with backbone.

The Invertebrates are animals without a backbone.

Run you hand down your back.

Do you feel the bumpy bones? That is your backbone.

You are a vertebrate.

Based on their body temperature, The vertebrates divided into:

Warm-blooded animals, like mammals and birds, try to keep the inside of their bodies at a constant temperature. They do this by generating their own heat when they are in a cooler environment, and by cooling themselves when they are in a hotter environment. To generate heat, warm-blooded animals convert the food that they eat into energy.

Cold-blooded animals's temperature depend on their surroundings. They are hot when their environment is hot and cold when their environment is cold.

There are 5 classes of vertebrates:
(here is a brief description to help you remember)
* Mammals- warm blooded animals that have hair or fur and have mammary glands

*Birds/Aves- warm blooded animals that have feathers and lay eggs with hard shells laid on land. Have air sacs & hollow bones. Internal fertilization

*Pisces/Fish- cold blooded animals that have scales, gills, and fins and lay eggs

*Reptiles- cold blooded animals that have scales, lungs and lay eggs

*Amphibians- cold blooded animals that have a smooth moist skin, eggs laid in water, breath through gills, lungs, and skin. Metamorphosis and 'double live', which means they can live in water on their early stage of their live as tadpole (frog) and live on land when they already mature as a frog)