SMALL ANIMAL CARECHAPTER ONE

INVERTEBRATES – 420 million years

VERTEBRATES - 370 million years

DINOSAURS – 180 million years

SMALL ANIMAL – 70 to 40 million years

Domestication of animals. Up to 12,000 years

ago-dogs About 3,500 years

ago-cats

The Small Animal Industry 58.9% of all American

families own pets. Cats now outnumber

dogs as most common pet!

Small Animal Industry cont. 3rd in popularity is

Birds 4th is Rabbits 5th is Hamsters 6th is Fish

Small Animal Industry $$$$ 10,500-11,000 retail

pet stores= $21 billion in sales!!

Vet. Expenditures of over $7 billion for dogs Almost $4 billion for

cats And over $91 million

for birds

CLASSIFICATION OF ORGANISMS 5 KINGDOMS

MONERA PROTISTA PLANT FUNGI ANIMALIA

CLASSIFICATION OF ORGANISMS ALL AMIMALS WE WILL STUDY ARE IN

PHYLUM CHORDATA!

CHARACTERISTICS OF CHORDATA: NOTOCHORD DORSAL NERVE TUBE PHARYNEAL AREA REAR AREA TAIL

CLASSIFICATION OF ORGANISMS CLASSES:

MAMMALIA – FEED YOUNG MILK REPTILIA- SCALES OR BONY PLATES AVES- WINGS OSTEICHTHYES- LIVE IN WATER

BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE GENUS- 1ST WORD, CAPITAL LETTER

SPECIES – 2ND WORD, LOWER CASE

LETTER

EXAMPLE: Canis familaria (dog)