Class Aves

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Class Aves

• aka Birds

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General Characteristics

• All members are homeotherms
• They can maintain a constant body temperature
• aka warm blooded, endotherm
• Body covered by waterproof feathers
• Feathers are coated in oil to repel water
• Helps maintain body temperature
• Sea birds are defined as birds that spend a
  significant part of their lives at sea and feed
  on marine organisms
• Have webbed feet
• Only 3 of all birds are sea birds
• Have a four chambered heart
• All internal anatomy is the same as yours

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Penguins

• Most adapted to life at sea
• Wings are modified into flippers and no longer
  allow for flight
• Bones are denser to decrease buoyancy
• Vision is adapted to seeing underwater
• Most live in Antarctica
• Feed on large krill and small fish

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Pelicans

• Characterized by webbing between all their toes
• Have a large pouch under their mouths
• Used to scoop large amounts of water and fish
  into the mouth

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Gulls and Shorebirds

• Make-up the majority of seabirds
• Act as scavengers and predators
• Only shorebirds do not have webbed feet and feed
  by wading in the water
• Can live in inland waters as well as the ocean

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Class Mammalia

• aka Mammals

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General Characteristics

• Evolved about 200 million years ago
• All members are warm blooded
• Body is covered in hair
• Whales have hair just not a lot
• All mammals are viviparous
• This means that they give birth to live young
• No eggs are involved
• aka placental because the young is nourished
  internally by a placenta
• All mammals nurse their young with mammary glands
• Young are generally well cared for raised by
  the parents for years after birth
• Brain is large and complex

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Seals, Sea lions and Walruses

• These are marine mammals that have flippers for
  swimming but also need to be near land to rest
  and sleep
• In the order pinnipeds
• Thought to have evolved from cats, dogs and bears
• Are all active carnivores
• Bodies are streamlined for swimming
• Most live in cold water and have blubber fat to
  keep them warm

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Seals

• The largest group of pinnipeds
• Characterized by rear flippers that cannot be
  moved forward
• Move on land by pulling themselves forward with
  their front flippers
• Males can weight up to 4 tons
• Equivalent to 5 Chevy Silverado's
• have been hunted for meat and oil from the blubber

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Sea Lions

• Characterized by having ear flaps
• Can walk on land with all four flippers

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Walrus

• Characterized by tusks
• Feeds mostly on invertebrates

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Sea Otter

• The sea otter is the smallest marine mammal
• lack blubber
• Keep warm by air trapped in thick fur
• Spend most if not all of their life in the water
• Live in and around kelp forests

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Whales and Dolphins

• These animals have made the most complete
  transition to the sea
• Thought to have evolved from cows
• Front limbs evolved into flippers rear limbs
  merged into a tail flipper (fluke)
• Nostrils have evolved into a single blowhole on
  the top of the head
• Whales feed using baleen to filter water
• Same material as our hair
• Baleen whales are the largest animals in the
  world

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Whales and Dolphins cont.

• The rest of the group are considered toothed
• This means that they have teeth and most act as
  predators
• Includes dolphins and killer whales
• All whales and dolphins are protected against
  capture and hunting by industrialized nations
• Non-industrialized nations and native Americans
  are allowed to take a certain number of whales a
  year for food

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Dolphins

• technically considered toothed whales
• All members have blunted noses and are smaller
  than what we usually think of as whales
• Highly playful and often seen in large groups
  called pods

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Interesting Biology

• Can reach speeds of 40 mph in the ocean
• Can stay submerged up to 1 hour
• Achieve this by restricting flow to organs that
  are not necessary to stay alive
• Heart rate decreases
• Can dive to a depth of 1,900 feet
• Often rely on echolocation to pinpoint prey and
  other members of the same species
• Produce sound waves that bounce off an object

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Interesting Biology cont.

• Dolphins are only one of three mammals that we
  wage war on its own species
• Humans and monkeys are the others
• Thought of as a sign of intelligence
• Live in huge groups with complex social
  hierarchies
• Migrate huge distances to find food and breeding
  grounds
• Gray whales migrate off our coast every fall and
  spring between Mexico and Alaska