Snipfact:

  The biggest creature in the sea are whales, which are mammals not fish. The blue whale is the largest creature that has ever lived. Whales spend all their lives in the sea, but there are other mammals that spend most of their time in water and some time in water and some time on land. These include seals, sea lions and others.

  Scientists have long argued about whether the giant panda should be grouped with the raccoon family or the bears. DNA tests have now proved that it belongs with the bears. The koala, often called koala bear, is actually a marsupial not a bear. Polar bear (Arctic) Brown (grizzly) bear (North America, Europe, Asia) American black bear (North America) Asiatic black bear (Southern Asia) Sloth bear (Asia) Giant panda (China) Spectacled bear (South America) Sun bear (Asia)

  Lots of mammals can dive underwater, including humans, but whales are the champions. All have to hold their breath. These are average dives. Northern bottlenose whale 120 mins Sperm whale 112 mins Greenland whale 60 mins Seal 22 mins Beaver 20 mins Dugong 16 mins Hippopotamus 15 mins Popoise 15 mins Muskrat 12 mins Duck-billed platypus   10 mins Sea otter 5 mins Human pearl diver 2.5  mins Human 1 min

  Big cats like lions are perhaps the most powerful of all mammal predators. These measurements are from the nose to tip of the tail. The length of tail varies – a leopard’s tail can be as long as 110 cm and a jaguar’s tail as short as 45 cm. Tiger (Asia) 330 cm Leopard (Asia, Africa) 320 cm Lion (Africa,Asia) 280 cm Jaguar (North, Central and South America) 271 cm Mountain lion (North, Central and South America) 245 cm Snow leopard (Asia) 240 cm Cheetah (Africa, Asia) 220 cm Clouded leopard (Asia) 197 cm

  A mammal is a warm-blooded vertebrate (animal with a backbone) With some hair on its body . Female mammals feed their young on milk from their mammary glands. Most mammals give birth to live young which develop inside the mother’s body, but echidnas and the platypus lay eggs. Marsupial mammals such as kangaroos give birth to live young, but they are very small and weak. They finish their development in a pouch on the mother’s body.

  The following are the smallest land mammals, according to length: Kitti’s hog-nosed bat 2.9 cm Pygmy shrew 3.6 cm Pipistrelle bat 4.0 cm Little brown bat 4.0 cm Masked shrew 4.5 cm Southern blossom bat 5.0 cm Harvest mouse 5.8 cm

  The following are the biggest land mammals according to weight; African elephant 7,000 kg White rhinoceros 3,600 kg Hippopotamus 2,500 kg Giraffe 1,600 kg American bison 1,000 kg Arabian camel (dromedary)  690 kg Polar bear 600 kg

  Monkeys and apes (and humans) belong to the group of mammals called primates. There are  256 known species of primate. The smallest is the pygmy mouse lemur, which weighs only 30 g. The largest is gorilla, which weighs 220 kg. The human comes next at 77 kg.

  Edward O. Wilson, professor of Zoology at Harvard, researched the intelligence of mammals. He defined intelligence on the basis of how fast and how well an animal can learn a wide range of tasks. He also took into account the size of the animal’s brain compared with its body. His top ten most intelligent mammals, in order are: human, Chimpanzee, gorilla orang-utan, baboon, gibbon, monkey, small-toothed whale, dolphin and elephant.

  The African elephant has the longest pregnancy of any mammal. She carries her baby for an average of 660 days. When the baby is born it weighs 90-120 kg. A baby blue whale is even bigger . It weighs 2,000 kg and is 7 m long. It puts on weight at the astonishing rate of 90 kg a day.

  206-144 million years ago Jurassic period – reptiles dominate land, sea and air; Archaeopteryx (first bird) appears; first mammals 144-65 millions years ago Cretaceous period – dinosaurs become extinct; snakes and lizards appear 65-55 million years ago Palaeocene period – first large land mammals 55-34 million years ago Eocene period – modern land mammals and whales appear 34-24 million years ago Oligocene period – modern mammals dominant 24-5 million years ago Miocene period-modern mammals eg primates; ; birds 5-1.8 millions years ago Pliocene period – human –like apes appear 1.8 millions -10,000  years ago Pleistocene period – humans appear 10,000 millions years ago to present Holocene period – human civilization

                3,900-2,500 million years ago Archaean period – the earliest marine life form (blue-green algae) 2,500-540 million years ago Proterozoic period – the first many-celled  organisms evolve 540-490 million years ago Cambrian period – the first fossils of animals with shells and skeletons 490-443 millions years ago Ordovician period –molluscs, some corals and fishlike vertebrates 443-417 million years ago Silurian period – fish develop jaws; first sharks 417-354 million years ago Devorian period – fish dominant; amphibians (the first land animals) evolve 354-290 millions years ago Carboniferous period – insects; first reptiles 290-248 millions years ago Permian period – insects evolve into modern types; reptiles evolve 248-206 million years ago Triassic period – early dinosaurs; marine reptiles

  The first simple life forms began to appear on Earth almost four billion years ago. More familiar animals appeared about 500 million years ago, and humans only within the pas two million. we know a little about extinct creatures and early humans from fossil remains found in rocks from each period.

  Who would have thought that a sea anemone could live for 80 years? All these figures are the longest ever recorded. most of these animals have mush shorter lives. Marine clam 200 Giant tortoise 150 Human 122 Killer whale 90 Sea anemone 80 Asiatic elephant 78 American alligator 66 Blue macaw 64 Horse 62 Chimpanzee 56 Hippopotamus 54 Slow-worm 54 Beaver 50 Bactrian Camel 50 Grizzly bear 50 Blue Whale 45 Boa Constrictor 40 Domestic cat 34 Lion 30 Pig 27 Common rabbit 18 Queen ant 18 Giant centipede 10 Millipede 7 House mouse 6 Bedbug 6 months Common housefly (male) 2 weeks

  On 23 March 2006 a giant tortoise called Adwayita died at the Alipore Zoo, Kolkata (Calcutta). He was brought to the zoo in the 1860s from the estate of Lord Robert Clive. He may even have been up to 250 years old when he died.

  Most of the creatures in this list can keep up these speeds for only a short time – less than an hour. The peregrine falcon achieves its speed as it dives through the air to catch prey, not in level flight. Peregrine falcon (diving speed) 298 km/h Spine-tailed swift 171 km/h Eider duck 113 km/h Sailfish (fastest fish) 110 km/h Cheetah (Fastest on land) 105 km/h pronghorn antelope 89km/h Racing pigeon 80 km/h Lion (Charging) 80 km/h Brown hare 72 km/h Ostrich (fastest flightless bird) 72 km/h Blue shark 69 km/h Horse 69 km/h Greyhound 68 km/h killer whale 56 km/h Death’s head hawkmoth (fastest-flying insect) Guano bat (fastest-flying mammal) 51 km/h Skipper butterfly 48 km/h California sea lion 40 km/h Dolphin 40 km/h Fastest man over 100m 37 km/h

  Below is a list of the animals we know about. No one knows exactly how many species there may be altogether. New species are always being found and there may be tens of millions not yet discovered. Some experts think there may be millions of species of insects and at least a million species of deep – sea fish that no one has ever seen. About half of all known creatures and plants live in tropical rainforests. In a study of just 19 trees in a tropical rainforest, 1,200 beetle species were found. About 80 per cent of these had not been seen before. Arachnids 75,500 (spiders, scorpions, etc) Molluscs 70,000 (snails, clams, etc) Crustaceans 40,000 (shrimps, crabs, etc) Fish 29,300 Nematodes 20,000 (unsegmented worms) Flatworms 17,500 Segmented worms 12,000 Sponges 10,000 Birds 9,934 Jellyfish, coral, etc 9,000 Reptiles 8,240 Starfish 6,000 Amphibians 5,918 Mammals 5,416    

  Shopping to feed 650 different species of animals is hard work, but that is the task of keepers at London Zoo. Below is the zoo’s basic shopping list for a year.   Hay 47 tons Bananas 29 tons Apples 29 tons Straw 28 tons Clover 26 tons Fish 19 tons Food pellets 18 tons Carrot 13 tons Meat 9 tons Oranges 4.5 tons Grapes 4 tons Potatoes 3.1 tons Tomatoes 2.78 tons Honey 0.25 tons Eggs 38,000 (number) Lettuces 15,860 (number) Cabbages 8,320 (number) Milk 975 litres

    The animal kingdom alone has thousands of different species. A species is a type of animal, and animals of the same species can breed successfully with each other. Similar species are grouped in a genus. Genera are grouped into families, families into orders, right up to the level of phylum. The phylum chordata contains all vertebrate animals – animals with a backbone. Here’s how a human and a giant panda are classified.                           Human                 Giant panda Phylum               Chordata               Chordata Class                   Mammalia              Mammalia Order                 Primates                Carnivores Family                 Hominidae              Ursidae Genus                 Homo                    Ailuropoda Species              sapiens                  melanoleuca

  Living things are organized by scientists into five groups called kingdoms. These are: Animals (Animalia); Algae and protozoans (Protoctista); Bacteria (Prokaryoote); Mushrooms, moulds and lichens (Fungi); Plants (Plantae).

  Wolffia, a kind of duckweed, is just 0.6 mm long and weighs about as much as two grains of salt. Its seeds are also the tiniest known – they weigh only 70 micrograms as much as a single grain of salt.

  The bristlecone pines in California and Nevada, USA, are  almost 5,000 years old and were long believed to be the oldest trees, Latest research suggest that creosote bushes in the USA’s Mojave Desert may be even older – some of these plants began life nearly 12,000 years ago.

  The General Sherman giant sequoia National Park, California, USA, is the world’s largest living thing. It is 83.8 m tall and measures  2.53 m round its mighty trunk. Including its huge root system, the tree weighs about 2,000 tonnes.

  The world’s tallest tree is called the stratosphere Giant. It grows in the Rockefeller Forest. Humboldt Redwoods State Park, California. At 112.32 m (369 ft), this redwood is almost three times the height of the Statue of Liberty in New York.

  The leaves of purple foxglove contain digitalis and eating just a few can be fatal. Digitalis is used in tiny does to treat people suffering form heart disease.

  Nicotine is a yellow oily liquid fond in tobacco. About 50 milligrams of nicotine would kill an adult within minutes.

  Deadly nightshade is also known as belladonna. It contains a poison called atropine. Less than 10 milligrams could kill a child.

  Curare is extracted from the bark of certain trees and its used by South American Indian tribes to tip their poison arrows when they go hunting.