• What are land animals?
• Characteristics of land animals
• Classification of land animals
• Examples of land animals

We explain what land animals are, the history of their origin and development, their types, characteristics and multiple examples.

Terrestrial animals have fur or plumage that protect them from the outside.

What are land animals?

In biology, we speak of terrestrial animals to refer to those animals that make life preferentially or entirely on earth, that is, on the continental surface of the planet, unlike the aquatic animals, who live mostly in the Water. Land animals are physically and organically adapted to life away from water.

In the early days of the planet, life started in the water, and spread to the land surface about 500 million years ago, when the first vascular plants left the water. The first animal forms followed around 70 million years later, consisting mostly of arthropods and in vertebrates bone.

Initially the animals could barely travel over land from a habitat aquatic to another for short periods. But the opportunities of feeding and territory of the continental surface, and the arduous competence in the water, motivated the adaptation to dry ground. The process of adaptation of animals to the emerged land is called terrestralization.

Currently, terrestrial animals make up a significant percentage of life in the Earth, highly diversified and almost as abundant as marine life. The biggest density of these animals is found in woods Y tropical forests damp. However, it has been adapted to practically all climates, habitats and regions of the globe.

Characteristics of land animals

Land animals have stronger skeletons to support their weight.

Although terrestrial animals are very diverse among themselves, they share certain minimal features of adaptation to the terrestrial environment, despite the fact that said adaptation may occur through different mechanisms and organs. Thus, the minimal features of terrestrial animals are:

• Breathing. Gone are the gills and other mechanisms of aquatic respiration, in favor of gas exchange. Oxygen is extracted from the air through the lungs, tracheae, or directly through the skin.
• Sturdy skeletons. Since in the water the weight of the body is less than in the air, terrestrial animals require strong, non-cartilaginous bone structures, especially in the limbs that support them. In the case of arthropods, the skeleton is on the outside (exoskeleton) and in vertebrates, on the inside (endoskeleton). There are exceptions to this rule, in the case of simple beings with an elongated body such as worms, which do not have a skeleton.
• Senses adapted to the dry. The sight, the smell and the hearing, essential senses to hunt the dam or to defend themselves from the predator, distinguishing one from the other, they must in the case of terrestrial animals adapt to the air, where the waves sonorous they move more slowly and there is much more abundance of light.
• Prevention of desiccation. Being in a environment where is lost humidity Instead of gaining it, terrestrial animals must have skins adapted to prevent the loss of humidity or with endogenous mechanisms to humidify it, as well as structures that protect it from the cold or from the cold. heat, such as hairs, feathers, etc. For this same reason, terrestrial egg-laying animals adapted them to have a strong shell that prevents desiccation.

Classification of land animals

Arboreal land animals live mainly on tree branches.

It is never easy to classify land animals, since their only really common aspect is living outside of water. But many of them have reproductive cycles that still need it, either going through an aquatic larval phase, or having to deposit their eggs in water, etc.

Thus, the edges (phylum) properly terrestrial in the world there are ten: flatworms, nemerteans, nematodes, rotifers, tardigrades, onychophores, arthropods, mollusks, annelids and chordates.

And attending to your habitat specific, we can distinguish between:

• Surface animals. Those who inhabit the earth's surface.
• Underground animals. Those that inhabit the inner layers of the earth's surface.
• Tree animals. Those who make life in the branches of trees.
• Rupicultural animals. Those who live on the rocks.
• Sand animals. Those that inhabit the sands and gravels of different types.
• Troglobite animals. Those who inhabit caves.
• Flying animals. Those endowed with wings and that can alternate between the earth's surface, trees, moutains, etc.

Examples of land animals

Although it cannot fly, the ostrich can run at speeds of up to 70km / h.

Some detailed examples of land animals are:

• Elephant (Loxodonta africana). From Africa and India, east mammal This huge quadruped with a vegetarian diet is famous for its long trunk with which it can pick up objects and even bathe in wells. Many ancient civilizations used them as living war tanks.
• The lion (Panthera leo). The oldest carnivorous feline of the planet and the king of the bed sheet African, this huge animal with yellowish fur is a natural predator found in Danger of extinction. Males have a characteristic dark mane.
• The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Known for its striking yellow fur with geometric brown spots, and for its long neck that allows it to eat the highest leaves of trees, this four-legged African animal is one of the most exotic known to mankind.
• Panda bear (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). One of the most curious fur bears in the world: black and white, and with a diet almost exclusively on bamboo, it is perhaps the most famous Asian animal in danger of extinction. They are usually slow, sleepy and comfortable, weighing between 70 and 100 kilograms.
• Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis). This huge reptile Indonesian native can measure over two meters in length and weighing almost 90 kilos, it has a very dangerous bite, since it has a huge amount of bacteria in the mouth.
• Ostrich (Struthio camelus). Large running bird, native to Africa and some regions of the Middle East, capable of reaching 70 kmph in one race. It has small wings that are not useful for flying, and a long neck without feathers.
• Orangutan (I put pygmaeus). A species of long-haired orange primates, highly intelligent and with arboreal habits, they are closely related to human beings evolutionarily. With solitary habits, they have an almost exclusive diet of fruits, leaves and roots.