Backbone or No Backbone?
A dolphin has a backbone but no legs. Which main animal group does it belong to?
Vertebrates
A whale breathes air and feeds its young milk. Which vertebrate group does it belong to?
Mammals
Does an invertebrate have a backbone?
No
An oak tree grows from an acorn. Does that make it a seed plant or a seedless plant?
Seed plant—the acorn contains a seed.
A fern is a seed plant or a seedless plant?
Seedless plant
A beetle has a hard outer covering. Does that covering make it a vertebrate? Explain.
No. It has no backbone; the covering is an exoskeleton.
A penguin cannot fly. Which body covering still identifies it as a bird?
Feathers
A spider has eight legs and two main body sections. Which group does it belong to?
Arachnids
A pine tree has no fruit. What structure would you examine to find its seeds?
Cones
Mosses and ferns reproduce using these instead of seeds.
Spores
A snake and an earthworm both have long bodies without legs. Which is the vertebrate?
Snake
A mystery animal has moist skin and undergoes a change from a water-living young form to an adult. Which group best fits?
Amphibians
An ant, a bee, and a butterfly are all insects. How many legs does each have?
6
A sunflower and a pine tree belong to different seed-plant groups. How do their seed-producing structures differ?
A sunflower produces flowers; a pine tree produces cones.
These small seedless plants often form soft, green patches on damp ground or rocks.
Mosses
A jellyfish, an octopus, and a shark live in water. Which one does not belong with the other two when classified by backbone?
Shark—it is a vertebrate.
A lizard and a salamander both have four legs and a tail. Which skin characteristic helps you tell them apart?
A lizard has dry, scaly skin; a salamander has moist skin.
A snail has a shell. Does that make it a vertebrate? Explain.
No. A shell is not a backbone.
An apple tree has no flowers on the day you observe it, but apples are growing on its branches. What evidence shows it is a flowering plant?
Its fruits developed from flowers.
The tiny spots on the undersides of many fern leaves contain structures that produce these.
Spores
A student groups a snail and a turtle together because both have shells. Explain why they belong in different groups when classified by backbone.
A turtle has a backbone; a snail does not.
A student says a bat is a bird because it flies. Give two characteristics that classify it as a mammal.
It has hair or fur, and mothers produce milk for their young.
A crab has a hard covering on the outside of its body. This covering is called this.
Exoskeleton
A student groups a pine tree with ferns because neither has flowers. Explain why the pine belongs with seed plants instead.
Pine trees produce seeds in cones; ferns reproduce by spores.
A mystery plant has true roots and stems but makes spores instead of seeds. Is it more likely a fern or a moss?
Fern