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Arthropods

The arthropods are invertebrates, meaning they don’t have internal skeletons.

They are the largest animal group on the planet. The main arthropod characteristic is that they all have jointed legs. Another fascinating characteristic that they all have in common is that their body is divided into segments, and many of which, though not all, are protected by an external skeleton which is used as a shield or shell. They can be either terrestrial or aquatic. The terrestrials, such as scorpions, breath through their traquea were as the aquatic such as lobsters breath threw their gills.

Arthropods eat everything, some are herbivores, such as caterpillars, others carnivores, like a praying mantis, and others omnivores like the wasps, which eats everything. As there are so many different types, they are classified into four large groups; insects (ants), arachnids (spiders), crustaceans (crabs) and myriapods (centipedes).

This video for preschool and primary children describes arthropods.