Terrestrial Animals are those creatures that carry out most of their life on land and are therefore both physically and organically suited to life away from water. They can lead their entire lives on the surface of the earth or jumping through trees, underground or in caves, environments to which they are fully adapted.
Land animals
Terrestrial animals are defined as those animal species that live mainly or completely on land, in contrast to aquatic animals , which live predominantly or totally in water, or amphibians, which are dependent on a mixture of terrestrial and aquatic environments.
Their bodies have adapted and are ready to crawl, run, walk, or fly, depending on where they live on the planet. Terrestrial animals require oxygen to survive; most have lungs, and their food consists of other, smaller animals or plants. Some are small, while others are enormous.
Terrestrial animals are classified as all those species that live on the earth's surface, and even if they are domestic or wild, they develop their entire existence on land.
What are the Terrestrial Animals?
After the beginnings of the planet, life originated in water, and spread to the Earth's surface about 500 million years ago, when the first vascular plants left the water. The initial animal forms continued around 70 million years later, being composed mostly of arthropods and bony vertebrates.
At first, the animals barely managed to move by land from one aquatic environment to another through short periods. But the opportunities to obtain sustenance and territory from the continental area, and the stiff competition within the water, promoted the adaptation to dry land. The process of adaptation of animals to the emerged land is called terrestrialization.
Currently, terrestrial animals make up a significant percentage of life on Earth, highly diversified and almost as profuse as marine life. The highest density of these animals is found in warm humid forests and jungles. However, it has been adapted to almost all climates, environments and areas of the globe.
Characteristics of Terrestrial Animals
There are numerous attributes that distinguish terrestrial animals, and which determine their way of inhabiting and moving on earth. Likewise, given their body structure, their differences with other kinds of animals are evident in their way of moving from one place to another.
Terrestrial animals have undergone a whole series of evolutionary processes, through which nature has endowed them with the characteristics they possess today. This form of adaptation to the environment is called natural selection, and it is nothing more than the acquisition of abilities, practices, and skills that enable them to survive on the harsh Earth's surface.
Throughout their existence, terrestrial animals have had as their primary concern the provision of sustenance for themselves and their young. They must be alert to danger, as predators can attack them at any time or circumstance. For the preservation of the species, the reproductive rhythm must be maintained; in certain species, the male must court the female before mating.
The human factor has caused the deterioration of the habitat of a large part of the species of terrestrial animals, whose affectation has forced them to change their way of life, and in other cases to the same alteration of their diet.
Earth Classes
It is never easy to classify land animals, since their only truly related trait is living out of water. But most of them have reproductive cycles that still require it, either when they go through an aquatic larval stage, or when they need to lay their eggs in water, etc.
The term terrestrial is usually applied to species that make their life primarily on the ground, in contrast to the arboreal varieties, which spend their time mainly on the branches of trees. There are other less used words that are applied to groups of terrestrial animals with a particular habitat:
- The saxicolous or rupicolous are species that inhabit rocks. The word saxicola comes from the Latin Saxum which means "rock".
- The arenicolas make their life in sand and gravel of various kinds.
- The troglobites, hypogea or troglobiontes that live mainly in caves.
- Of surface. Those animals that live exclusively on the earth's surface.
- underground. Made up of those species that live in the inner layers of the earth's surface.
- Flyers. Those that have wings and that alternate between the earth's surface, trees, mountains, etc.
Taxonomy
The occupation of the earth was one of the most momentous events in the history of life on the planet. It gave rise to the development of terrestrial classes of various phyla (a certain type of animal classification) of animals, and among them, the vertebrates. , arthropods and molluscs come to represent the most successful groupings among terrestrial animals.
Terrestrial animals do not form a single clade (a branch of the phylogenetic tree), they have only shared the fact of living on land. The change from an aquatic environment to a terrestrial one has developed autonomously and successfully on many occasions in different groups of animals. Much of the terrestrial classes had their origin in a warm or mild climate through the Paleozoic and the Mesozoic, however few animals became fully terrestrial during the Cenozoic.
Except for internal parasites, the species that inhabit terrestrial environments are represented by the ten phyla indicated below: platyhelminths, nemertines, nematodes, rotifers, tardigrades (water bears), onychophorans, arthropods, molluscs (gastropods: land snails and slugs ), annelids and chordates (tetrapods). There are microscopic creatures, such as nematodes, tardigrades and rotifers that need a film of water to survive, therefore, they are not considered to be totally terrestrial.
Flatworms, nemertines, onychophorans, and annelids are dependent on relatively humid environments, as are centipede and millipede arthropods. The three remaining phyla, arthropods, molluscs, and chordates, are composed of species that have fully adapted to dry terrestrial environments, and by varieties that have no aquatic phase in their lifetime.
Body Structure of Terrestrial Animals
They have anatomical and physiological configurations that allow them to carry out daily activities in order to survive and feed themselves. Their structures are adjusted in the best way to the needs they face daily, so they are able to carry out survival tasks. These include feeding, being able to breathe, reproduce and carry out hunting tasks.
There are certain factors that have had an influence on the development of their bodies:
- The places they populate have shaped their ways of getting around. Primates have long arms to jump through trees, for example.
- The food they eat has shaped their teeth and snouts. Certain animals have huge teeth that allow them to chew, tear and crumble food.
- The predators they are escaping from have triggered the development of their senses in an acute way.
- The climate of the places inhabited by them has caused the adaptation of the fur of the terrestrial specimens to extreme situations, in such a way that animals such as the polar bear, in addition to being large, their skin is thick in order to withstand the cold.
Similarly, the size of the body of these land animals determines their bone structure. Certain small animals have not been provided with bones to support their body weight, which we call invertebrate animals. On the other hand, large animals have been endowed with vertebrae, which enable them to stand upright.
Breathing
Animals, as well as any life form, require oxygen to survive. Certain varieties of animals are distinguished from others by the process used to obtain oxygen from the environment around them. From the above it has come to be known that there are various ways in which animals obtain oxygen. The gills and other aquatic respiration systems were discarded, in favor of gas exchange. Oxygen is obtained from the air through the lungs, tracheas, or directly through the skin.
The pulmonary route is the procedure by which animals enter air into their bodies through holes, to be later processed by the internal organs called lungs. Through this procedure, animals take oxygen from the air around them, which enables them to survive.
The process of bringing air into the body is called inhalation. Every time the air is processed by the lungs, certain waste products are generated in the form of gases, which are expelled through the same entrance holes. This last process is called exhalation, and all of the above together is the way of breathing that all land animals have in common.
Locomotion
Since the body weighs less in the water than in the air, terrestrial animals need powerful bone structures, not cartilaginous, particularly in the limbs that support them. In the case of arthropods, the skeleton is outside (exoskeleton) and in vertebrates, inside (endoskeleton). There are exceptions to this rule, as happens with simple beings with elongated bodies such as worms, which do not have a skeleton.
This process defines how animals move or migrate on the ground. Based on the above, animals can be classified according to their locomotion into two groups: quadrupeds and bipeds. All animals that move with support on all fours are called quadrupeds. Examples of these are lions, cows, tigers, panthers, and others. On the other hand, bipedal animals are those that move with support on two legs, such as ostriches, gorillas, meerkats, and others.
Dry Adapted Senses
The essential senses to capture a prey or to defend against a predator that are sight, smell and hearing and that allow them to distinguish one from the other, must, in the case of terrestrial animals, adapt to the air, in which sound waves move more slowly and there is more light abundance.
Prevention of Desiccation
Being in an environment in which moisture is lost instead of gained, terrestrial animals must have adequate fur to prevent its loss or external mechanisms to moisten it, as well as elements that defend it from cold or heat, such as hair, feathers, etc. For this same reason, the terrestrial animals that lay eggs adapted their eggs to have a solid shell to prevent their desiccation.
Feeding of Terrestrial Animals
Regarding the type and quality of the food they consume, land animals can be classified into the following three categories:
Carnivores
Carnivorous animals have based their diet on meat, so most of these animals are classified as predators since they hunt other animals to feed on their meat. There are, however, other animals that do not require hunting to feed on meat.
They are qualified as scavengers, whose diet is based on the remains of dead animals. Scavengers play an important role in our ecosystem, as they get rid of organic debris, clean the environment and help in the recycling process.
herbivorous
The diet of herbivorous animals is based primarily on plants, as well as fruits, roots, seeds and wood. These animals do not require consuming meat as part of their sustenance. This kind of food does not have as many nutrients as meat, so to have a more complete diet, they have to eat in quantity.
To this end, they devote a large portion of their time to feeding. Herbivores can consume more than 40 kilograms of weight daily, all to keep their bodies supplied with enough energy for survival.
omnivores
This group includes animals that feed on both meat and plants. They don't follow a rigid diet, so these animals have great flexibility when it comes to their food intake. Because their diet is so diverse, they can easily obtain food.
Habitat Types of Terrestrial Animals
The space occupied by terrestrial animals determines their habitat, in which desert, humid and other categories can be located, so there is enormous diversity.
Equatorial
They are also known as rain forests since they are spaces where humidity is always present. They contain a great diversity of animal species. Its vegetation is copious, since in these areas numerous plants and trees can be found, which makes them a site frequented by herbivorous animals. Numerous carnivorous animals also take advantage of the forests since it allows them to catch the weak herbivores that usually feed on their grasses and fruits.
American
Just as the jungles are full of vegetation, where the immense number of trees help keep oxygen levels high in the world. Through chemical processes such as photosynthesis, plants transform carbon dioxide into oxygen.
These habitat categories are under threat of deforestation, as large numbers of trees are cut down daily to meet human needs for wood. Such activities negatively affect not only these paradises in which animals live, but also reduce the levels of oxygen that these forests contribute to the atmosphere.
Desert
They are dry and desolate spaces in which few animal species live. The rains are few and life is extremely difficult for those who live there. However, the few animals that populate these places have developed processes that allow them to subsist with limited water or with little possibility of storing it.
Types of Terrestrial Animals
According to the way they reproduce, land animals have also been classified into different groups. Namely:
Mammals
They are also known as viviparous, and the vast majority are made up of all those animals that, prior to their birth, are engendered in the womb of their mothers. Every time the calf is born, it gets to suckle from its mother through her mammary glands. The calf is fed with its mother's milk during the first stage of its development. Once your teeth develop you can begin to eat foods of a certain solidity.
These animals are characterized by having warm blood, so they can regulate body temperature. They are suitable for hot or cold environments. Share part of this group can be differentiated into three categories of mammals:
- Placentals: Generated in the womb like human beings and numerous other quadrupedal animals, such as cows, dogs, cats, etc.
- marsupials: A wide variety of animals can be obtained in this group whose gestation occurs with the embryonic development of the offspring in a sac called a marsupium.
- Monotremes: This group, in contrast to the other two, is not made up of viviparous animals, but by oviparous animals, that is, they lay eggs. Few cases where the presence of animals such as the platypus stands out.
Oviparous
The formation of the embryo of these animals occurs inside an egg, and this process can take place internally or externally. In external reproduction, the female lays an egg and the male later fertilizes it with his sperm. The egg is cared for while the development of the embryo takes place, so that finally the hatchling breaks the egg to be born.
In internal reproduction, the female is fertilized by the male inside her body. By the time the mother lays the egg, it is already fertilized. The young from these eggs are already almost formed at birth, ready to live and interact with the outside world. One peculiarity of these animals is noteworthy, and that is that they can generate much larger offspring than mammals.
Singularities in the Species
Every animal species has a series of particularities that are presented as charming to human beings. As part of the terrestrial animals we have many wild animals, which are characterized by not having lived closely with humans. And this more than anything is due to the risk that they can mean for us. They are animals that, given their indomitable nature, have to take care of themselves and must procure their own food.
Among terrestrial animals, some are adapted to live in extreme environments, with high temperatures or limited access to water. Learning more about these varieties, such as desert animals , is enough to understand their adaptation to their barren surroundings in order to survive: camels, insects, lizards, and beetles.
Among other peculiarities of some species we have very rare animals, which are those of which we have little knowledge, either because they live in very isolated places, or because they are physically different from us.
terrestrialization
It has been shown by some fossil evidence that it was about 530 million years ago that the first forays onto land by some sea creatures associated with arthropods took place. Despite this, there is no reason to believe that animal life on earth began in that same period.
A more likely theory suggests that the reason these early arthropods ventured onto dry land was to mate (as horseshoe crabs still do today) or to lay their eggs out of reach of predators. Evidence indicates that over time, about 375 million years ago, bony fishes, better adapted to life in shallow coastal or swampy waters, were more likely to evolve as amphibians rather than their arthropod ancestors.
Thanks to their muscular and relatively strong limbs (capable of supporting weight and thus more suitable than fins in shallow water) and their pre-existing lungs combined with gills, these creatures were able to establish themselves firmly on land by the late Devonian. They are therefore considered to be the most recent common ancestors of all modern tetrapods.
Examples of Terrestrial Animals
Here is a list of some terrestrial animals with some of their particular characteristics:
Elephant (Loxodonta africana) . Native to Africa and India, this large, four-legged mammal has a plant-based diet. It is recognized for its long, powerful trunk, which it can use to manipulate objects and even to bathe in water. Numerous ancient civilizations employed them as living tanks.
Lion (Panthera leo) . It is the largest feline carnivore on the planet and best known as the king of the African savanna. This immense animal with yellowish fur, originally a predator, is endangered. Males have a distinctive dark mane.
Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) . Famous for its attractive yellow coat with geometric brown spots, and for its long neck that allows it to feed on the highest leaves of the trees, this quadruped animal from Africa is one of the most exotic that humanity has ever known.
Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) . It is one of the most strikingly colored plantigrades in the world: black and white, and it feeds almost exclusively on bamboo. It is considered perhaps the most famous Asian animal on the verge of extinction. They are usually slow, lazy, and comfortable, and weigh between 70 and 100 kilograms.
Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) . This gigantic reptile native to Indonesia can reach a length of over two meters and weigh almost 90 kilograms. It has a very dangerous bite, given the immense number of bacteria in its mouth.
Ostrich (Struthio camelus) . A large flightless bird, native to Africa and parts of the Middle East, that can reach speeds of up to 70 km/h. It has small wings that are not useful for flying, and a long, featherless neck.
Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) . A variety of orange-colored primates with long, flowing fur, highly intelligent and arboreal. Evolutionarily, they are deeply linked to humans. Solitary by nature, their diet consists exclusively of fruits, leaves, and roots.
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