The Kingdom of Animals   Animals are creatures that are capable of moving, feeding and breeding. An animal is born, it develops by eating food and reproduces animals of its own type and eventually dies. The reproduced animals carry on the same cycle. The kingdom of animals is made up of over 10 million species and is the largest group of living beings known to man. In terms of size they...

The First Animals About 2,000 million years ago small ‘Bacteria’ developed in the seas these were the first forms of life on the Earth. These were followed by, creatures like worms and jelly fish in water and plants and algae on land. Birth of the first plants was important since plants produced Oxygen, which created the Ozone layer thus preventing the Sun’s harmful rays from reaching the Earth and helping life...

Evolution of Life Evolution means to adapt and change’ with the passage of time. In the mid 19th century Charles Darwin, a Naturalist, travelled around the world studying various life forms. His findings were the basis for the ‘The Theory of Evolution’. He stated that the present life forms are the successors of much simpler life forms which existed millions of years ago. As time went by some simpler life forms...

Soil a Necessity for Plants There are various features of soil which allow plants to grow in it. The small garden outside our house may have millions of insects, organisms in it which thrive on other organic and inorganic matter in the soil which makes it fertile for plants. Soil has various layers with ‘Humus’ at the top followed by ‘Topsoil’ and ‘Subsoil’ finally the lowest layer is made of crumbled...

Land Recreated Seas are constantly attacking cliffs and beaches and eroding them. However nature is fully capable of maintaining it’s balance, which is proved by the fact, that the Seas also contribute in creating new expanses of land. Sea waters are constantly pushing up sand on the beaches, blowing wind collects the sand to form dunes and also mixes it with other forms of topsoil and wild seeds. These seeds grow...

The Size and Shape of the Earth There was a time when man believed that the earth was flat and if one was to walk to the edge then he or she would fall off into oblivion. These myths existed for a long time till the first explorers proved otherwise. today man has seen the Earth from outer space and from the Moon and ye are sure of its shape. In...

The Ice Age   Today the North Pole and South Pole are the biggest expanse of ice on Earth. What we see today is only one third of the ice that covered our planet in those days. Millions of years ago large parts of Canada, Greenland and Northern Europe were covered with huge expanses of ice. In the last million years there were many such periods called the ‘Ice Ages’. In...

The Oceans and their floor 71 per cent or the Earth’s surface is covered by water which forms the Oceans. The surface of the oceans and seas is constantly restless because wind create waves in the water and the Moon’s gravitational pull causes high and low tides. Oceanographers (scientists who study the oceans) using underwater cameras, echo-sounders, sonar and manned or un-manned submarines have studied the oceans and found that the...