Animal Groups — Answer Key
Part A: Fill in the Blank
Write the missing word or number on each line.
1. A lizard is a reptile.
Penguins have wings, but their wings are short and stiff like flippers. Instead of flying in the air, penguins use them to zoom through ocean water.
2. Mammals are warm blooded.
Having hair and feeding milk to babies are the two main things that make an animal a mammal, and a horse does both.
3. Fish have fins to help them swim.
Toads and newts are amphibians because they have smooth, moist skin and can live both in water when young and on land when grown up.
4. A bee is an insect.
Every fish lives in water because their gills can only pull oxygen out of water, not from the air we breathe.
5. Penguins are birds that cannot fly.
Spiders have eight legs, but insects have only six. That extra pair of legs is why spiders belong to a different group called arachnids.
6. A horse is a mammal.
A parrot is a bird because it has bright feathers, two wings, and lays eggs, and it also has a strong curved beak to crack seeds.
7. Snakes do not have legs.
Crocodiles are reptiles, so the mother climbs onto dry ground to lay her eggs in a warm mud nest where the babies can grow.
8. Tadpoles grow into frogs.
Dolphins are mammals, so they have lungs and must swim up to the surface to breathe air through a blowhole on top of their heads.
9. Spiders have eight legs.
Ladybugs and grasshoppers each have six legs, three body parts, and antennae, which are the features that put them in the insect group.
Part B: Matching
Match each item on the left to the correct answer on the right.
1. Match each item to its correct answer.
shark
→ fish
fish
robin
→ bird
bird
ladybug
→ insect
insect
rabbit
→ mammal
mammal
Each animal group has its own special features: fish breathe underwater with gills, insects always have six legs, birds grow feathers and beaks, and mammals have fur plus mothers who make milk for their babies.