By Carl W. Hoagstrom
This four-volume set of encyclopaedias deals available info at the animal country. Entries specialize in non-humans from the animal nation, from bugs to reptiles to mammals. Early people are addressed in an evolutionary context, and smooth people are integrated just for interspecies comparability or for his or her efforts to coexist with different species. The encyclopaedia's additionally comprise species overviews which debate striking anatomy and body structure, habitat, behaviour and copy and contain a sidebar directory class, geographical position, lifestyles span, and detailed anatomy.
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Extra info for Magill's Encyclopedia of Science: Animal Life
Example text
This master gland secretes a variety of hormones, including hormones that stimulate the thyroid gland and control its secretion of thyroxine, which dictates the rate at which all cells utilize oxygen; control the secretion in the adrenal gland of hormones that influence the metabolism of carbohydrates, sodium, and potassium and control the rate at which substances are exchanged between blood and tissue fluid; control the secretion in the ovaries of estrogen and progesterone and the creation in the testicles of testosterone; control the rate of development of the skeleton and large interior organs through its effect on the metabolism of proteins and carbohydrates; and inhibit insulin—a lack of insulin causes diabetes mellitus.
Some primitive forms have dermal scales embedded in their skin. All caecilians possess a unique sensory organ called a tentacle. Fertilization is internal, and male caecilians possess a copulatory organ that is derived from the cloaca. The life history of most forms is incomplete, but in at least some, females retain eggs in the oviduct and give birth to fully developed young. Fossil caecilians are unknown. Frogs Finally, the order Anura is composed of tailless amphibians called frogs. Their hind legs are typically modified for jumping, their presacral vertebrae are usually eight in number, and their postsacral vertebrae are fused to form a coccyx.
Many of these lay eggs in specially constructed foam nests; other species have taken this a step further and deposit their eggs in damp, terrestrial situations, thereby avoiding aquatic predators almost completely. The dendrobatids are often small, brightly colored frogs that have been given the common name of poison arrow frogs because of their extremely toxic skin secretions. These secretions have been used by some Indian tribes to poison the tips of hunting arrows. Members of the family Pseudidae are unique in producing very large tadpoles that metamorphose into rather small frogs.
