Welcome to my Animal Diversity Page. This page contains animals that I've encountered in my studies or that I just find so darn neat! If you want lots of info on life on Earth, visit the Tree of Life.

If you were unaware, insects comprise a lot of the life we have here on Earth...and that's mostly just beetles and the like!

I can't say that I have a favourite animal, but the Snow Leopard comes very close. Its scientific name is Panthera uncia. It can be found at high altitudes in coniferous forests of the Himalayan and Altai mountains to Mexico. It has soft gray fur with dark black-brown spots, a yard-long furry tail, large paws And, like most of the animals on this page, it's endangered.

Or, in this case, the animal is already extinct!
These two lil' beasties are Dilophosauri -- you might remember them from Jurassic Park (they're the dudes that sprayed Newman with that goop and ate him in his Jeep). However, there is no anatomical evidence that they spit. Dilophosaurs are amongst the most primitive dinosaurs.

This little creature belongs to the Argonaut family...no, not the football players *L*.
Argonauts are muscular, pelagic octopods. Females secrete a thin calcareous "shell" in which they reside. Shells may reach a length of 30 cm (Nesis, 1982/7). The dorsal arms of females are modified with a large, flag-like membrane that expands over the shell and is responsible for the secretion of the shell. Eyes are very large and webs very small. The mantle-funnel locking apparatus consists of knob-like cartilages (mantle) and matching depression (funnel). Males are dwarfs. The argonaut paralarva has a distinctive appearance as seen in the photo. The arms are very short and are surrounded by a membranous collar.

Rommel's favourite animal is the Peregrine Falcon. They're an endangered animal due to the usage of DDT by farmers. Peregrine Falcons are amazing birds.

I thought this is about as close to cute as any spider gets. I apologize to my sister (Carla) and my friend Dani who are petrified of these beasties.
Habronattus includes approximately 100 species of jumping spiders, most from North America, the remainder in the neotropics. Most are ground-dwelling on open ground with sparse vegetation, especially on rocks, dry leaf litter and sand. The arid southwest has many species, but Florida also has many species, and others are known above the Arctic circle and east to maritime Canada. The genus was recently revised by Griswold (1987). The genus is notable for the remarkable forms and colors of the coursthip ornaments of males, which are used in complex courtship behaviors.

Owls are absolutely amazing.
Did you know that the skull of an owl is asymmetrical? The openings for the auditory canal are on different planes! This is so that the owl can locate sounds better because sound reaches one ear before the other.
Also, those "disks" around the owl's eyes help to amplify sounds! Neat, eh?

My buddy Vivek from the U of A says his favourite animal is the Koala. I think they're pretty cute, too.
They're also an endangered species found only in Australia

This is a tree lizard. The ability to change colour in relation to your background environment is a trait that not very many living things possess.

Okay, this creature just looks funny!
Chiroteuthids are of small to large size (up to 78 cm ML), rather gelatinous, slow moving deep-water squids with elongate necks. Considerable morphological differences exist between genera, three of which have in the past been placed in separate families. They all share, however, a very distinctive paralarva known as the doratopsis stage. Members of the family have numerous fluid-filled chambers and vesicles of ammonium cloride resulting in near-neutral buoyancy for the squids.