On this page, you’ll find out if rabbits are rodents – plus many other interesting facts on rabbits and their closest relatives, hares and pikas.
Animal Questions
In this section of the site, we proved answers to frequently-asked questions on the animal kingdom and other natural history subjects.
Got an animal question of your own? Ask it in the comments section of a related page on the site and we’ll do our best to answer it!
Are Turtles Reptiles Or Amphibians? Why Is A Turtle A Reptile?
Are Turtles Reptiles?
Turtles are reptiles. Turtles belong to the order Testudines, which is one of four groups of living reptiles. Turtles possess the typical characteristics of reptiles, being cold-blooded, egg-laying, scaly-skinned, vertebrate animals that breathe air with lungs.
Turtles are not amphibians; reptiles and amphibians are two different groups of animals.
How Many Legs Does An Ant Have? (And Other Interesting Ant Facts)
How Many Legs Does An Ant Have?
An ant, like all insects, has six legs. This is the same for all ant species, from the common black ant to the fearsome bullet ant. Whether an ant is a worker, a queen, or a drone, it will have six legs, all of which are attached to the thorax, the middle section of an ant’s three-part body.
On this page, you’ll find out more about an ant’s body; the different types of ant (queen, worker, and drone) and their roles in a colony; the ant life cycle; and meet interesting ant species, including the aforementioned bullet ant.
Are Marsupials Mammals (And Why)? Marsupials Vs Placental Mammals
Are Marsupials Mammals?
Marsupials are mammals and, like all other mammals, belong to the class Mammalia. Marsupials are known as “pouched mammals” because, after being born, their young continue to develop in a special pouch in the mother’s abdomen.
Marsupials belong to the infraclass Metatheria, which is one of the three main mammal groups, the others being the egg-laying monotremes and the placental mammals.
Are Snakes Amphibians? Snakes Vs Amphibians, Similarities, Differences
Are Snakes Amphibians?
Snakes are not amphibians; snakes are reptiles that belong to the class Reptilia, a group that also contains animals such as lizards, turtles and crocodilians. Amphibians belong to the class Amphibia, a group that also contains animals such as frogs, toads, newts, caecilians and salamanders.
Are Insects Animals? And If So… Why?
Are Insects Animals?
Insects are animals. Like all animals, insects are multicellular organisms that respire using oxygen, reproduce sexually, eat and move. Insects belong to the animal class Insecta, which, with around one million living species, is by far the biggest class within the animal kingdom. Insects make up at least two-thirds–and likely a much larger proportion–of all known living animal species.
On this page you’ll find a simple, fact-filled guide to insects and why they are considered to be animals…
Are Alligators Dinosaurs? How Crocodilians Are Related To Dinosaurs
Are Alligators Dinosaurs?
Alligators are not dinosaurs, but they, along with the other crocodilians, are the closest living relatives of dinosaurs (apart from birds, which are dinosaurs). Although alligators are neither dinosaurs, nor the descendants of dinosaurs, they are more closely-related to dinosaurs (and therefore birds) than they are to other living groups of reptiles, such as snakes and turtles.
To understand why alligators are not dinosaurs, and how the two groups of animals are related, we need to go back millions of years in the reptile family tree to the Mesozoic Era…
Do Sharks Lay Eggs? Facts On Shark Eggs & Mermaid’s Purses
Most fish lay eggs… but sharks are not most fish. On this page we take a look at shark life and answer the question “Do sharks lay eggs?”.
Is A Beetle An Insect – And Why? Beetle Characteristics
Is A Beetle An Insect?
A beetle is an insect. Beetles make up the order Coleoptera, the largest insect group; there are more beetles than any other type of insect. Around 40% of all insects are beetles, and one in four of all known animals is a beetle.
On this page we take a look at what makes a beetle a beetle, find out the characteristics of beetles, and discover some of the many different types of beetles…
Is A Spider An Insect? What Are The Similarities & Differences Between Spiders & Insects?
Is a spider an insect? On this page we ask ‘Are spiders insects?’ and explain the differences between insects and spiders. We’ll also travel back hundreds of millions of years to the Cambrian Period, when the earliest ancestors of both spiders and insects first appeared…
