This document describes the physical characteristics of 14 different vertebrate species. It provides details on size, weight, coloration, locomotion abilities, diet, and other distinguishing physical traits for each species. The species described include the Great Horned Owl, Black Bear, Siberian Tiger, White Rhinoceros, Nile Crocodile, Blue Poison Dart Frog, Leatherback Sea Turtle, Platypus, Red Kangaroo, and Ball Python.

1. Vertebrates
Eric Rhonehouse, Whitney
Stevenson, and Stephen Carse

2. Great Horned Owl Bubo Virginianus
• Description: Native to the Americas
the Great Horned Owl has a
wingspan reaching anywhere from
40-60 inches with a body length from
18-27 inches. The females are larger
than the males. The adult owls have
big ear tufts and a reddish brown and
gray face. It also has a noticeable
white patch in the center of it throat.
Unlike humans they cannot move
their eyes about in their sockets.
Instead they are able to turn their
necks 270 degrees without having to
move their bodies. They have
excellent vision and are able to see
ineptly in low light. Their hearing is
also spectacular being able to
pinpoint sources of sound both
vertically, depth wise, and
horizontally very well.

3. Black Bear Ursus Americanus
• Description: Americas most
common and smallest bear
species. Adult males usually
weight between 130-550 lbs and
females usually weight between
90-240 lbs. They are between 47-
70 inches in length and stand
between 28-41 inches high at the
shoulder. They have broad skulls
with slender muzzles with big jaw
hinges. Females tend to have
narrower faces. Black bears are
known for the good eyesight and
dexterous movements. They have
been known to unlatch doors.

4. Siberian Tiger Panthera Tigris Altaica
• Description: They are rusty yellow
to bright orange in color with
slender transverse black stripes.
They are the largest of the big
cats and the largest species of
tiger. Males have longer
bodies, broader skulls, longer
tails, and are heavier than
females. They have been known
to prey on local black and brown
bears, but this is uncommon. The
tigers prey mainly on deer.
Wolves are kept out of the area
do to competition of the same
food. They have been recorded at
weights as high as 850 lbs.

5. White Rhinoceros Ceratotherium
Simum
• Description: The second largest land
mammal after all three species of
elephants. Their body is between 11-
14 feet long. At the shoulders these
animals can be anywhere from 4ft
10in to 6ft 7in. Average males weigh
about 5,100 lbs while average
females weigh 3,700 lbs. They have
two horn growths on their
snouts, and their horns are made of
pure keratin. They have three toes on
each foot and the only hairs on their
bodies are located on its ear fringes
and on its tail as bristles. They are
grazing herbivores that are found in
the savannah grassland habitat. They
play in mud holes to stay cool during
the hot African day.

6. Nile Crocodile Crocodylus Niloticus
• Description: Nile Crocodiles have a dark
brownish bronze coloration on top with black
spots on their back. Their belly is dirt purple
and their flanks are yellowish green. They
have scaly hides and a long and powerful tail
that they use to propel themselves through
the water. They have four short legs that they
can use for digging and if necessary, running.
They can run about 8 mph at top speed but
swim at about 22 mph top speeds. They have
powerful jaws that exert 5,000 lbs of
pressure per foot. However, the muscles
responsible for reopening the jaws are very
weak and are easily kept shut when closed
by a human. Nile Crocodiles are the most
aggressive of the crocodilians and are the
second largest crocodilians in the world only
behind Saltwater Crocodiles.

7. Blue Poison Dart Frog Dendrobates
Azureus
• Description: The Blue
Poison Dart Frog weighs
about 8 grams and is found
to be 3-4.5 centimeters
long. They usually have a
lifespan of 4-6 years in the
wild. Its skin is bright blue
and gets darker around the
limbs. These frogs have
poisonous alkaloid
chemicals embedded in the
skin. This poison can
paralyze and even kill
potential predators of the
frog.

8. Leatherback Sea Turtle Dermochelys
Coriacea
• Description: The Leatherback Sea Turtle is
the largest sea turtle alive today and the
fourth largest reptile in the world behind
three other crocodilian species. They have a
rather large tear shaped hydrodynamic body
along with two flat large front flippers that
provide the turtle with its main source of
mobility. These front flippers can grow up to
a little less than 9 feet long (8.9ft). These sea
turtles, unlike any other sea turtle, lack a
boney carapace, which is the shell. Their
shell is made up of thick and oily flesh. The
rest of their body is made up of leathery skin
implanted with osteoderms, which are bony
deposits. The average shell length is 3.3-5.47
feet with a total body length of 6-7.2 feet.
Their average weight 550-1,500 lbs. The
largest one ever caught had a total length of
9.8 feet, weighed 2,020 lbs, and had a shell
length of 7.2 feet.

9. Platypus Ornithorhynchus Anatinus
• Description: Platypuses are covered in dark brown
hair. This hair is so dense that it actually traps air
which helps keep the animal warm. Its broad flat tail
is a storage reserve of fat. It also has webbed feet
like that of a duck on its legs which are set beside
the body rather than underneath it. While on land
these animals walk on their knuckles to protect their
webbed feet. The snout of the platypus is a sensory
organ that can detect electrical pulses while the
mouth is located under it. The platypus uses this
sensory organ to shuffle around in the muck at the
bottom of a lake or a river to find its prey lurking in
the sand. These creatures vary in weight from 1.5-
5.3 lbs with the males the larger of the genders. The
average length of a male platypus is about 20 inches
while the average female length is about 17 inches.
Both males and females have spurs on the back legs
but only the male contains venom. This venom is not
deadly to humans but will put a person in an
excruciating amount of pain and will cause them to
be in a state of dysfunction for a couple of days to
month. Females lay their eggs.

10. Red Kangaroo Macropus Rufus
• Description: The Red Kangaroo is the
largest of all the kangaroos and is the
largest mammal native to Australia.
They have pointed ears and a
squared off muzzle. Males have a
more red brown coloration in their
fur while females are blue gray.
Males are also larger than females.
Its muscular hind limbs function like
rubber bands and enable this
creature to leap 30ft horizontally.
Males can weigh up to 300 lbs and
are about 9.8 feet long from head to
tail. Females only weigh about 77 lbs
and are about d3.6 feet from head to
tail. These kangaroos have a field
range vision of 300ͦ due to the
position of their eyes.

11. Ball Python Python Regius
• Description: The Ball Python gets its
name from its tendency to curl up
into a ball when it is stressed or
frightened. They are the smallest
species of python native to Africa and
therefore are very sought after in the
pet trade. They generally do not grow
beyond3.9 feet in length but it is very
rare that they do reach 5-6 feet.
Females are slightly larger than males
averaging 4-4.5 feet in length and
males 3-3.9 feet in length. Their color
normally consists of black or dark
brown with light brown sides and a
creamy white underbelly. In the wild
their diet mainly consists of small
mammals such as field mice and rats.

12. Komodo Dragon Varanus
Komodoensis
• Description: The Komodo Dragon is the
largest species of lizard alive today that
can grow 9.8 feet in length and can weigh
up to 150 lbs. Their unusual size is
credited to island gigantism, which is the
biological phenomenon in which the sizes
of animals isolated on an island grow
exponentially in comparison to their
mainland relatives. This makes sense
because they only inhabit small islands in
Indonesia like Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili
Motang, and Gili Dasami. The main part of
their diet consists of deer, but they eat a
broad spectrum or things from birds to
invertebrates. A recent discovery in 2009
found in an MRI scan of the skull the
Komodo Dragon has two venom glands in
its lower jaw. These glands contain many
different toxic proteins and disprove the
previous notion that the bacteria in the
saliva of the Komodo cause the death its
victims.

13. Bald Eagle Haliaeetus Leucocephalus
(America!!!!!)
• Description: The Bald Eagle is the national
bird of the United States of America. These
majestic birds of prey rule the North
American sky stretching from Northern
Mexico all the way to Northern Canada. They
have an even plumage color of brown on
their body and have a white plumage head.
Its body length can reach anywhere from 28-
40 inches and its wingspan is generally from
5.9-7.5 feet long. Females are about 1/4th
larger than males weighing on average 13 lbs
and males weighing on average 9lbs. They
live about 20 year in the wild and in captivity
they live longer. One Bald Eagle in captivity in
New York lived to be 50 years old. They
prefer habitats near bodies of water such as
coastal regions of large lakes, oceans, and
large rivers where fish is abundant. They
roast, nest, and perch in mature standing
coniferous or hardwood tree. They can reach
speeds up to 45 mph and 30 mph when
carrying a fish. When they dive in the sky
they can reach 99 mph top speed. Trout and
Salmon comprise most of the bird diet.

14. Western Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla
• Description: The Western Gorilla can
be brown or gray with a yellowish
forehead. Male silverbacks can reach
6 feet tall and weigh 310-440 lbs.
While females average about 4 ft 7in
tall and 220 lbs. They live in group
sizes between 2-20 with at least one
male and a bunch of females and
their offspring. The silverback leads
the group and maturing males
eventually end up leaving the group
when they finally reach maturity.
Before the maturing females start to
breed they move to a different group.
These creatures live a surprisingly
long life of 40 years and their diet
consists of mainly fruit. Some wild
Western Gorillas are known to use
tools like straws.

15. Koala Phascolarctos Cinereus
• Description: Koalas are range in
color from soft gray to dark gray
to sort of brownish. Males can
weigh up to 26 lbs and females
up to 19lbs. They are
marsupials, which means they
put their offspring in a pouch to
mature. The females have a
gestation period of 35 days
before the embryo is transferred
to the pouch. These creatures
generally live about 12 years and
survive completely off
eucalypts, which are woody
plants. They are one of the few
mammals besides primates that
have a finger print.

16. Japanese Giant Salamander
Andrias Japonicus
• Description: The Japanese Giant
Salamander is the second largest
salamander in the world only second to
the Chinese Giant Salamander. They can
reach up to about 5 feet in length. These
creatures are completely aquatic but do
not keep their gills when they become
adults. They travel upstream into the
mountains to lay their eggs. The males
seek out the eggs sacs laid by the
females, which can contain up to seventy
eggs, and fertilize them. They are confined
to flowing water where oxygen is more
prevalent because they lack gills. Unlike
most salamanders, they need not to
venture out of water to breath. They only
need to stick their head out of the water
for a couple of minutes. In the wild they
can live up to 80 years, but in captivity
they only live about 50 years.

17. Great White Shark Carcharodon
Carcharias
• Description: The Great White
Shark is known for its massive
size and can sometimes reach
over 20 feet in length and
weigh over 5,000 lbs. They
feed mainly on fish, web
footed animals like seals, and
seabirds. Females are
generally larger than males.
They are able to detect
electromagnetic fields
generated by living organisms.
These sharks are so sensitive
to that they can detect one-
billionth of a volt.