Reptile and Bird Quiz

    Mammals (Class Mammalia)

Mammalian Characteristics    

     -Mammals are endothermic

    -Most are viviparous (Give live birth)

    -Have fur for warmth

    -Females have mammary glands and feed their young milk

    -Mammals have the largest brain to body weight ratio.

        -Their large brains have been one of the contributing factors to their success

    -Mammals are successful in all ecosystems on the planet

    -All mammals evolved on land. Even the ancestors of whales lived and walked on land.

Sea mammals also have other adaptations for living in the ocean with lungs

     -Marine mammals have myoglobin. Land mammals use hemoglobin to transport oxygen through their body

     -Marine mammals like dolphins use myoglobin because it can not only transport oxygen but it can store it

     -Marine mammals like the sperm whale can hold their breath for hours

     -Another marine mammal adaptation is while diving their heart only sends blood to vital organs and selectively ignores others

    Order Carnivora

            -Sea otters and Polar Bears

            Sea Otters (Common Name)

                -Otters lack blubber so they have very thick fur to keep themselves warm

                              -One square inch of their fur holds as much fur as an entire Labrador dog. 

                -Fur trappers capture them for their fur

                -The sea otter is the smallest marine mammal

            Polar Bear (Common Name)

                -Polar Bears are semiaquatic, they have webbed paws and are great swimmers

                -They spend most of their time on drifting ice

                -They hunt and eat seals

    Order Pinnipedia (Pinnipeds)

        Seals, Sea Lions, and The Walrus

      -Pinnipeds have a paddle like flipper and need to rest on land

      -The Pinnipeds evolved from an early ancestor of the Order Carnivora (Cats, dogs, and bears)

      -Pinnepeds used to be in the order Carnivoria until they were given their own order.

        Seals (Common Name)

            -Seals have the largest amount of species for the pinnipeds

            -Seals have no external ears

            -The males have no external testicles

            -Rear flippers cannot move forward

            -Front flippers have claws and covered in fur

        Sea Lions (Common Name)

            -Have external ears

            -Have external testicles

            -Can rotate their rear flippers to face forward to support their weight while walking

            -Have no claws or fur on their flippers

  Walrus (Common Name)

            -Have huge tusks in the front (Male and Female)

                 -Was thought to help with eating but no evidence for this

                -Mostly used for fighting and anchoring to ice

        Order Sirenia

            -The Manatee

            -Called the sea cow

            -Believed to be related to elephants

            -Named after the Sirens, they were thought to be mermaids

            -Are herbivores. They mostly eat see grass 

    Order Cetaccea

        -Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises

        -Convergent evolution

            -Cetacceans look like fish but did not evolve from them

            -The cetacceans were land mammals. That is why they have lungs

            -The cetacceans have four limbs as embryos

            -Cetacceans rear flipper is horizontal and fish have vertical rear flippers

            -Unlike most mammals the cetaccean nostril is not in the front of the face but on their back

                -Blow Hole

                -The cetacceans are mammals that never need to come on land

                -The blow hole helps them to breath with very little breach of the surface

Ambulocetus

    -Ancestor of whales and dolphins

Baleen Whales (Toothless Whales)

                -Instead of teeth baleeen whales have fibrous plates called baleen

                -Baleen is made of keratin just like hair or nails

                -Water is taken into the mouth and then pushed back out through the baleen

                    -The baleen filters the water out but leaves the organic matter inside

                    -The whale then swallows the organic matter

                    -Most baleen whales eat krill

                -Baleen whales are the largest animals in the world

                    -A blue whale can be between 80 and 100ft

                    -One of the largest animals to ever live

        Toothed Whales

            -These include all the other cetacceans, including dolphins

            -Because they have teeth they eat fish and squid

            -The largest is the sperm whale

            -The sperm whale was one of the most hunted

                -Its head is full of whale oil which was used for burning lamps

            -Sperm whales eat a lot of squid and undigested squid beaks and debris accumulate in their gut

                -They then throw up large globs of it called ambergis

                    -Ambergis is an ingredient in expensive perfume

            -A very popular toothed whale is the killer whale called an Orca

        Porpoise Vs Dolphin

            -A Porpoise is a small short nosed whale

            -A Dolphin can be identified by its long nose called a beak

Whales and dolphins can use echolocation