Plant or animal? The vertebrates — questions

1. identify

For each feature, choose whether it belongs to animals only, plants only or both kingdoms.

Write the number of the matching option.

1. Animals only
2. Plants only
3. Both kingdoms

• Made of many cells: ______
• Cells with a nucleus: ______
• Cell walls made of cellulose: ______
• Chloroplasts in many of the cells: ______
• Make their own food by photosynthesis: ______
• Cells with a membrane but no cell wall: ______
• Feed on organic substances made by other living things: ______

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Only one of the two kingdoms can make its own food. Which parts of its cells does it need for that?

2. explain

A sea anemone stays fixed to the same rock for weeks, and its tentacles spread out like the petals of a flower. Which statement explains why biologists place it in the animal kingdom?

Circle one answer.

• Its tentacles move, and only animals can move parts of their body
• Its cells have no walls and no chloroplasts, and it feeds on animals it catches
• It lives in the sea, and no plant can live in salt water
• It is soft, while every plant has a hard, woody stem

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Does staying in one place decide a kingdom? Look for the cell features and how it gets its food.

3. identify

Match each vertebrate group to the features that place an animal in it.

Write the number of the matching option.

1. Fur or hair; feed their young on milk; most have ear flaps
2. Feathers, a beak and wings; lay eggs with hard shells
3. Dry skin with scales; lay eggs with rubbery shells
4. Moist skin with no scales; lay soft eggs in water
5. Scales and fins; breathe with gills

• Mammals: ______
• Birds: ______
• Reptiles: ______
• Amphibians: ______
• Fish: ______

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Two groups have scales: use their other features to tell them apart.

4. identify

A penguin cannot fly. It swims under water using its stiff flippers. It has a beak, its body is covered in short feathers, and it lays eggs with hard shells. Which group of vertebrates does it belong to?

Circle one answer.

• Fish, because it swims and its flippers work like fins
• Mammals, because it lives in cold seas and keeps warm
• Birds, because it has feathers, a beak, wings and hard-shelled eggs
• Amphibians, because it lives both on land and in water

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Which features in the description belong to one group only?

5. identify

A bat flies at night on wings made of skin. It has fur on its body and ear flaps on its head, and a mother bat feeds her baby on milk. Which group does the bat belong to?

Circle one answer.

• Birds, because it has wings and can fly
• Mammals, because it has fur and ear flaps and feeds its young on milk
• Reptiles, because its wings are made of skin
• No group, because it has the features of two groups

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Which features does only one group have?

6. describe / identify

A newt and a lizard both have a long body, four legs and a long tail. (a) Describe the skin of each animal. (b) Name the vertebrate group of each. (c) Describe the eggs of each and where they are laid.

(a) Skin of the newt and of the lizard

(b) Group of each

(c) Eggs of each

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Touch is a clue: which one is dry and which is moist?

7. identify

A class noted the features of seven animals at a seaside nature reserve. Use the table to count how many of the animals belong to each vertebrate group.

Mammals: ______________ unit ________

Birds: ______________ unit ________

Fish: ______________ unit ________

Reptiles: ______________ unit ________

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Place each animal by its features, not by where it lives. Which feature does only one group have?

8. explain

A pupil says: "Pondweed floats in water and is soft, so it is not really a plant." Explain how a biologist decides that pondweed is in the plant kingdom.

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Where an organism lives is not a kingdom feature. What do its cells have?

9. explain / identify

A blue whale lives its whole life in the sea and swims with its tail and flippers. It comes to the surface to breathe air through a blowhole. Its skin is smooth, with no scales. A mother whale feeds her calf on milk. (a) A pupil says the whale is a fish. Give two features that show it is not. (b) Which group does the whale belong to? Give the feature that decides it.

(a) Two features that show it is not a fish

(b) Group and deciding feature

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Which features does a fish have? Which of them does the whale lack?

10. explain / evaluate

A Venus flytrap grows in boggy soil that has very few mineral ions. Its green leaves snap shut on insects, and the plant digests the insects to get mineral ions. A pupil says: "It catches and digests animals, so it belongs in the animal kingdom." (a) Which features place the flytrap in the plant kingdom? (b) Explain why catching insects does not make it an animal.

(a) Plant-kingdom features

(b) Why catching insects does not make it an animal

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Where does the flytrap get its sugars from? What do its green leaves have in their cells?

11. deduce / explain

The platypus lives in rivers in Australia. It has thick fur and a flat bill like a duck's. Females lay eggs with soft, leathery shells, and when the young hatch, the mother feeds them on milk. It has no ear flaps. (a) Which vertebrate group does the platypus belong to? (b) Explain your choice, and say which of its features might make people think of other groups.

(a) Group

(b) Explanation and misleading features

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Which two features does only one group have? Does the platypus have them?