Home › UPPCS › Biology › Gap Sheets › Animal Kingdom and Adaptations
UPPCS Biology Gap Sheet: Animal Kingdom and Adaptations.
UPPCS has asked 23 of these. 5 have not been asked yet. Lock the first list, then read the second: it holds what UPPCS has not used yet.
First, the concept
Classify an animal by its body plan, not its common name. Jointed legs indicate arthropods; a muscular foot or mantle indicates molluscs. Names ending in fish may belong to entirely different groups.
Circulation, breathing and reproduction are separate traits. Birds and mammals are endothermic, but egg laying does not exclude an animal from mammals. Adaptations reflect habitat and ancestry.
✅ Already asked (23)
Invertebrate body plans
- Hydra · Cnidarian with tissue-level organisation and stinging cells.
- Sponges · Porifera show cellular-level organisation and a canal system.
- Earthworm · Segmented annelid with closed circulation.
- Cockroach · Insect with open circulation; tracheae carry respiratory gases.
- Spider · Arachnid with four pairs of legs; makes gossamer silk.
- Scorpion · Arachnid; book lungs are respiratory organs.
- Octopus and squid · Cephalopod molluscs; unlike most molluscs, have closed circulation.
- Starfish · Echinoderm with tube feet and a water vascular system.
Vertebrate exceptions
- Fish heart · Two main chambers; single circulation.
- Frog heart · Three chambers; amphibians may breathe through moist skin.
- Crocodile heart · Four chambers, unlike the usual three-chambered reptile heart.
- Ectothermy · Body temperature depends strongly on environmental heat.
- Monotremes · Platypus and echidna are egg-laying mammals.
- Bat · Mammal capable of sustained powered flight.
- Whale shark · Largest living fish; a filter-feeding shark, not a whale.
- Sperm whale · Largest toothed whale.
- Ostrich · Flightless bird and fastest running living bird.
- Mammalian ear bones · Malleus, incus and stapes: three middle-ear ossicles.
Ecological and useful traits
- Gambusia · Eats mosquito larvae; a fish used in biological control.
- Female mosquito feeding · In many species females take blood meals for egg production; males feed on plant sugars.
- Pigeon crop milk · Both parents can produce a nutrient-rich crop secretion; not mammalian milk.
- Pheromones · Chemical signals between members of the same species.
- Bioluminescence · Chemical reactions emit light in organisms such as fireflies.
❌ Not asked yet (5)
🔒 5 items not asked yet
Invertebrate body plans: 2 · Vertebrate exceptions: 3
The UPPCS Pass opens every Repeat List and Gap Sheet, in English and Hindi.
Unlock the UPPCS Pass · ₹149Already bought? Enter your key
An All Access key works too.
⚠️ Whales and bats are mammals; starfish and cuttlefish are not true fish.
'Asked' and 'not asked' are checked against every UPPCS question on this site. 'Not asked yet' does not mean it will surely come.