After fish, the next groups of animals to evolve were the amphibians, reptiles, and birds. These animals spread across the planet and adapted to a wide variety of environments (Fig. 5.1).

Ocean Literacy Principles

Principle 5: The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems.

Ocean Literacy Fundamental Concept: Ocean life ranges in size from the smallest virus to the largest animal that has lived on Earth, the blue whale. (OLP 5a)

Ocean Literacy Fundamental Concept: Some major groups are found exclusively in the ocean. The diversity of major groups of organisms is much greater in the ocean than on land. (OLP 5c)

Ocean Literacy Fundamental Concept: Ocean biology provides many unique examples of life cycles, adaptations and important relationships among organisms (such as symbiosis, predator-prey dynamics and energy transfer) that do not occur on land. (OLP 5d)

To build an understanding of how the ocean supports a diversity of living organisms and ecosystems, it is important to learn about the biology of amphibians, reptiles, and birds.

These concepts will be explored in this unit through the following activities and investigations: