The Animal Kingdom

The animal kingdom consists of many different types of species that live either on land or in the water. According to the website Ecology Global Network “It is estimated that at least ten million different species of animals inhabit the earth at any one given time”(Mclamb). According to the University of Michigan’s animal diversity website, there are ten major classifications and biological orders that taxonomists have used to organize each species. The ten categories are Amphibians, Arthropods, Birds, Bony Fishes, Echinoderms, Insects, Mammals, Mollusks, Reptiles, and Sharks. This essay will focus on eight species, two from four of the ten categories. The species are the Blue Whale and African Elephant from the mammal family, honeybees and wasps, from the insect family, Sandhill Crane and American white pelicans from the bird family, and starfish and sea cucumbers, from the Echinoderms family.
The Blue Whale and Elephant are both considered mammals because of the fact that they bear live young and breathe air. The Blue Whale and African Elephant also share the distinct similarity of being the largest mammals on earth. The major differences between the Blue Whale and the African Elephant are where they live. The Blue Whale lives in all oceans and the Elephant is a land dweller living in tropical rainforests and swamps.
The African Elephant belongs to the Proboscidea order. According to the website enchanted learning.com “The word Proboscidea comes from the word proboscis, which means "nose.”(2010). Two other species that belong in the same order with the African Elephant are the Asian Elephant and the now extinct Mammoth and Mastodon. According to the University of Michigan Website “The Blue Whale belongs to the Cetacea Order because they evolved from terrestrial animals to an entirely aquatic life form that is completely separated from the land in all aspects of biology”. Cetaceans live, breed, rest, and carry out all of their life functions in the water....