A shark is a fish
Sharks breathe water through gills, swim with fins, and live their whole lives underwater. That makes them fish, even the biggest ones. The largest fish in the sea is a shark: the whale shark, which eats tiny floating sea life, not whales.
A whale is not a fish
Whales live in the sea and are shaped a bit like fish, but they breathe air through a blowhole, feed their babies milk and are warm-blooded. That makes them mammals, like dogs, elephants and you. Dolphins are mammals too.
A penguin is a bird
Penguins can't fly, but they have feathers, wings and beaks, and they hatch from eggs. Every animal with feathers is a bird. Penguins use their wings to fly underwater instead.
The kinds, side by side
Here are the kinds Peabody sorts its animals into, with how many of each are here so far.
| 🐘 Mammals | Hair or fur, and babies that drink milk. | 52 here |
|---|---|---|
| 🐦 Birds | Feathers, wings and eggs. | 13 here |
| 🐊 Reptiles | Dry, scaly skin; most lay eggs. | 11 here |
| 🐸 Amphibians | Start life in water, often live on land. | 9 here |
| 🐟 Fish | Gills, fins, and life in water. | 10 here |
| 🐝 Bugs and other animals without backbones | Insects, and soft or shelled animals with no backbone. | 10 here |
Where do octopuses go?
An octopus has no backbone at all. Neither do bees, butterflies, jellyfish and lobsters. Scientists call them invertebrates; on Peabody they share a shelf called "bugs and other animals without backbones", even though an octopus is certainly not a bug.
For Big readers: ocean animals are a place, not a kind
"Ocean animals" is a list of animals that live in the sea, not a kind of animal. It includes mammals (whales), birds (penguins), reptiles (sea turtles), fish (sharks) and animals without a backbone (octopuses). That's why our ocean page has a bit of everything.
Pick Big at the top to see the part for older readers.