Animals Are Different And Alike (2nd Ed, 1990)

[Music] Would you like to play a game with these animal pictures? Sure. How do we play? Well, there's something wrong with each picture, and we have to figure out what it is. We should be able to do that if we look closely at each picture and think about how animals are different and alike. We'll look at some real animals, too. That should help us decide how to fix the pictures. And we'll also find out more about how animals are different and alike. Okay, let's start with this picture. Do you see anything wrong here? I've never seen a butterfly that was as big as an elephant. So, we'll have to make the butterfly much smaller. An elephant is one of the biggest of all animals. You can see an elephant from a long way off. And you can tell it's an elephant by its shape and color, too. Animals have many different shapes and colors and sizes. Some animals are pretty small, and the smaller an animal is, the closer you have to get to see what it is. A grasshopper is so small you can pick it up and hold it in your hand. That's right. A grasshopper is one kind of insect. There are a lot of other kinds of insects. Nearly all of them are pretty small, but some are bigger than others. And they have different shapes and colors. Yes, just like this elephant and this butterfly have different shapes and colors and sizes. That one was easy, man. We're ready to try another one. A fish and a raccoon. What do you think is wrong here? I know a fish lives in water, but I'm not sure about the raccoon. Well, a raccoon is a good swimmer, but it can't really live in water all the time the way a fish does. A raccoon is really a land animal. One reason for that is because it needs to breathe oxygen from the air. All animals need oxygen. And many land animals have lungs that they use to get oxygen from the air. Does a fish have lungs, too? No, it doesn't. Well, then how does a fish get oxygen? There's oxygen mixed into the water, and a fish has some special body parts called gills that take in oxygen. The gills are under a flap of skin on each side of the fish's head. And a fish has other body parts that help it to move in the water. It pushes itself through the water by using its tail. It also has fins that it uses to keep it going in the right direction. So, a fish can move very easily in water, but a fish's tail and fins wouldn't be much good for animals that need to move around on land. They have legs instead. Well, most land animals have legs and different animals have different kinds of legs. So, they move in different ways. And some animals have another way of moving. Birds have wings. They can fly. Well, all birds do have wings, and most of them can use their wings to fly. But there are some birds that aren't able to fly. A penguin's wings are too short and stubby for flying, but they are good for another kind of movement. It uses its wings for swimming. Yes, penguins are good swimmers. That's important because they find their food in the water. But water is important for all animals. Even if they're not good at swimming, all animals need water inside their bodies. That's why they drink water. Well, many animals get the water they need by drinking it. But some animals, like these fish, take in water through their skins instead of drinking water. So, all animals need water and some animals live in water all their lives. But a lot of animals live on land instead. like the raccoon in this picture. Now, let's look at another picture. A lion and a rabbit, and each one is eating a carrot. A carrot is one kind of plant food. Now, of course, all animals need food, but do you think they all eat plant food? No. A lion likes to eat meat, right? There are meate eating animals like a lion and planteing animals like a rabbit. Rabbits will eat carrots and they also eat other kinds of plant food. Many animals have special body parts that help them to eat certain kinds of plant food. Horses have teeth that are very good at chewing grass. Birds don't have any teeth. A bird uses its beak to help it eat a certain kind of food. This kind of bird uses its beak to get fruit from the tree. Fruit is another kind of plant food. But there are some other birds that eat only meat. Animals that eat meat are called predators. You know a bird is a predator when you see a sharp curved beak. This kind of beak is very good at tearing off pieces of meat that the bird can swallow. Some other kinds of predators have sharp teeth that are good for tearing meat. Is that a dog? It's a lot like a dog, but it's really a wild animal called a coyote. You probably already know about some other predators that have sharp teeth, like a bear or a lion, right? They all eat meat. But very often a predator isn't able to catch an animal it wants to eat. That's because these animals have ways to protect themselves. Some animals are very good at running. So when they know a predator is nearby looking for food, they can run away. And if birds are in danger, they can fly away. Some other animals can escape by hiding. Prairie dogs dig tunnels under the ground, and when they know a predator is coming, they run into the tunnels and hide. Other animals have a different kind of protection. A starfish has a hard body covering that protects it from predators. And so does a turtle. It has a shell. Right. So a hard body covering can protect an animal from predators. That's not right. I guess you already know what's wrong with this drawing. A dog doesn't have a shell. No, of course not. But a dog does have a different kind of body covering. You mean its hair? Right. There are several different animals that have a body covering of hair. And all these animals belong to a group called mammals. Some mammals have a heavy coat of hair called fur. A body covering of fur helps to keep a mammal warm during the winter. How does a bird stay warm? It doesn't have any fur. No, a bird has a different kind of body covering. You mean its feathers? Yes. Feathers are very good at keeping a bird warm in cold weather. So, birds and mammals can live in places where the weather gets very cold because their body coverings help to keep them warm. This lizard lives in a very different kind of place. A place where the air gets very hot and dry. A desert. Yes. And one reason why this lizard can live in the desert is that lizards have a body covering of scales that are hard and dry. This kind of body covering helps to keep the lizard from drying out in the desert air. Snakes have a body covering of scales, too. There are many kinds of snakes and lizards, and they don't all live in the desert, but those that do live here are protected from drying out by their body covering of scales. You'll find some kinds of turtles living in the desert, too. Their hard body covering keeps them from getting too dry. So, animals have different kinds of body coverings that protect them in different ways. We fixed this picture and now we have just one more to figure out. Do you see anything wrong here? Well, this looks like a mother frog and her babies. And this looks like a mother bird and her babies. I don't know if there's anything wrong or not. We can find out by looking at some real animals. The mother bird is feeding her babies just like in the picture. That's right. Almost all birds take care of their babies, and many baby birds depend on at least one of their parents to bring them food. Baby mammals need help, too. You'll almost always see a young mammal close to its mother. One reason for that is because the food of a young mammal is milk, and it gets the milk from its mother's body. Some baby animals look just like their parents right from the very beginning. But that's not true of all animals. Is that a puppy? Yes, it's only a few minutes old. It doesn't look much like a grown-up dog. Not at first, but it does have almost all of the same body parts. This mother dog has nine puppies to feed and take care of. And as the puppies get bigger, they'll begin to look more and more like their parents. Now, how about frogs? A mother frog always lays her eggs in water, and most kinds of frogs go away after the eggs are laid. So, when the eggs hatch, the young animals won't get any food or protection from their parents. Are these baby frogs? They don't look like it. They're called tadpoles. They don't have the same shape as their parents, and they don't even have the same body parts. But as a tadpole grows up, it gets new body parts and loses some of the old ones. The tadpole is turning into a grown-up frog that looks just like its parents. And now we know what's wrong with this dog. Some animals like this frog go away after laying their eggs and the young animals have to take care of themselves. But other young animals like these baby birds are fed and protected by at least one of their parents. So now this drawing looks the way it should. And we fixed all the other drawings, too. We did it by looking closely at the animals in the pictures and looking at some real animals, too. and thinking about how animals are different and alike. [Music]