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Earlier evidence of animals is still controversial; the sponge-like organism Otavia has been dated back to the Tonian period at the start of the Neoproterozoic, but its identity as an animal is heavily contested. [5] Nearly all modern animal phyla became clearly established in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion ...
[4] Vertebrates are distinguished from all other animals, including other chordates, by multiple synapomorphies: namely the vertebral column, skull of bone or cartilage, large brain divided into 3 or more sections, a muscular heart with multiple chambers; an inner ear with semicircular canals; sense organs including eyes, ears, and nose; and ...
Found in all oceans [11] it was one of the largest and most powerful predators in vertebrate history, [10] and probably had a profound impact on marine life. [12] The Greenland shark has the longest known lifespan of all vertebrates, about 400 years.
[9] [10] [11] Certain animal species, and certain individuals within those species, make better candidates for domestication than others because they exhibit certain behavioral characteristics: (1) the size and organization of their social structure; (2) the availability and the degree of selectivity in their choice of mates; (3) the ease and ...
Over 1.5 million living animal species have been described—of which around 1 million are insects—but it has been estimated there are over 7 million in total. Animals range in size from 8.5 millionths of a metre to 33.6 metres (110 ft) long and have complex interactions with each other and their environments, forming intricate food webs.
A supergroup, in evolutionary biology, is a large group of organisms that share one common ancestor and have important defining characteristics. It is an informal, mostly arbitrary rank in biological taxonomy that is often greater than phylum or kingdom, although some supergroups are also treated as phyla. [1]
A mammal (from Latin mamma 'breast') [1] is a vertebrate animal of the class Mammalia (/ m ə ˈ m eɪ l i. ə /).Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle ear bones.
Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess Shale fauna". Paleontologists sometimes refer to a sequence of faunal stages, which is a series of rocks all containing similar