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The Five Vertebrate Groups Worksheet

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The Five Vertebrate Groups Worksheet

A wildlife rescue team has collected clues about several animals. Read the field notes and use each animal’s features to identify its vertebrate group. Remember: vertebrates are animals with a backbone. Groups are mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish.

Field Notes

The rescue team records these common features: Mammals have hair or fur, breathe with lungs and feed their young milk. Most give birth to live young. Birds have feathers, beaks and lungs. They lay eggs with hard shells. Reptiles have dry, scaly skin and breathe with lungs. They usually rely on their surroundings to warm or cool their bodies. Amphibians usually have moist skin. Many begin life in water, then change as they grow; adults may breathe with lungs and through their skin. Fish live in water and breathe using gills. Most have scales and lay eggs in water. These are common patterns, not rules that describe every single animal in exactly the same way.

Rescue Records

Read the clues for the next questions.

A. The animal has fur, breathes air with lungs and feeds its young milk. It swims in the ocean.

B. The animal has moist skin. Its young hatch in water and have gills before changing as they grow.

C. The animal has feathers, a beak and lungs. It lays eggs with hard shells.

1.Write the vertebrate group for each rescue record: A, B and C.

2.Record A describes an ocean animal. Which clue is strongest evidence that it is a mammal?

It lives in the ocean.
It has fur, breathes with lungs and feeds its young milk.
It can swim.
It is a large animal.

3.A vertebrate is an animal that has a backbone.

TrueFalse

4.Classify each animal into one vertebrate group: kangaroo, kookaburra, blue-tongue lizard, green tree frog and barramundi.

5.Which two vertebrate groups in the field notes use gills at some stage of life?

6.A trainee writes: “Reptiles keep a steady body temperature, just like birds.” Is this note accurate? Correct it using the field notes.

7.Both fish and amphibians may use gills when young. Give one feature that can help distinguish an adult frog from a fish.

8.A platypus lays eggs, but it also has fur and feeds its young milk. A trainee says it must be a reptile because it lays eggs. Explain why that conclusion is not correct.

9.You find a small animal with dry scales. Which extra clue would be most useful for deciding whether it is a reptile or a fish?