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02-02-2007, 09:38 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Sunny Doncaster
Posts: 4,330
| | | If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Are insects miniature animals? i.e is a small animal an insect and, if so, when does an insect become big enough to be classed an animal? |
02-02-2007, 09:41 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Letchworth Garden City
Posts: 1,334
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
All insects are small animals, but not all small animals are insects.... |
02-02-2007, 09:42 PM
|  | Dame Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: North Kent
Posts: 6,371
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boddie  Are insects miniature animals? i.e is a small animal an insect and, if so, when does an insect become big enough to be classed an animal? | Four legs?
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The female of the species is more deadly than the male.:p |
02-02-2007, 09:44 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Sunny Doncaster
Posts: 4,330
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
However many legs, but not 8 |
02-02-2007, 09:47 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Letchworth Garden City
Posts: 1,334
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Who are you calling four legs??  |
02-02-2007, 09:58 PM
| | Dame Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: North Kent
Posts: 6,371
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boddie However many legs, but not 8 | What about four wings....oh no, that's a Steve. 
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The female of the species is more deadly than the male.:p |
03-02-2007, 12:26 AM
|  | Member of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: South Gloucestershire
Posts: 332
| |  Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
You're all as mad as a box of frogs!
That's why I like it here
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But growing up is optional! |
03-02-2007, 05:10 AM
|  | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Yorkshire Dales
Posts: 886
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
They were bigger but they were still insects.
"In prehistoric times dragonflies were much larger, the largest flying insects ever. The largest member of the extinct Protodonata was the Permian Meganeuropsis permiana with a reconstructed wingspan (based on fragments, scaled to complete fossils of similar animals) of about 70-75 cm." - from British Dragonfly Society
Nowadays some three quarters of the estimated 1,000,000 species of insect are smaller than 6mm.
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Rob |
03-02-2007, 06:28 AM
|  | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: N.E.SOMERSET
Posts: 6,584
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Bats eat thousands everynight and still they come
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03-02-2007, 10:09 PM
|  | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Chilterns
Posts: 7,822
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
i have seen locusts that are significantly bigger than a mouse so in answer to your question, its probably not a question of size
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06-02-2007, 09:03 AM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,389
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Quote:
Originally Posted by eeyore i have seen locusts that are significantly bigger than a mouse so in answer to your question, its probably not a question of size | If it's got legs, it's an animal (we're talking about living things here, so no jokes about chairs, please). Of course some animals don't have legs.
Nothing to do with size, or number of legs.
henrya
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06-02-2007, 10:43 AM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: East Kent
Posts: 1,498
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
What's got 12 legs and one eye? 
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06-02-2007, 10:44 AM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: East Kent
Posts: 1,498
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
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If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. |
06-02-2007, 11:36 AM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Little village called Chedworth
Posts: 4,785
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Quote:
Originally Posted by henrya If it's got legs, it's an animal (we're talking about living things here, so no jokes about chairs, please). Of course some animals don't have legs.
Nothing to do with size, or number of legs.
henrya | not quite that simple though is it, I mean techinically sponges are animals aren't they...... jellyfish etc....... |
06-02-2007, 11:49 AM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,389
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gill Catton not quite that simple though is it, I mean techinically sponges are animals aren't they...... jellyfish etc....... | They come into the group I mentioned, of animals that don't have legs!
henrya
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06-02-2007, 12:05 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Little village called Chedworth
Posts: 4,785
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Quote:
Originally Posted by henrya They come into the group I mentioned, of animals that don't have legs!
henrya | sorry my mistake was reading it the wrong way round......  |
06-02-2007, 12:46 PM
| | Active Member | | Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 72
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
I'm probably wrong, but aren't insects exo-skeletal? |
06-02-2007, 01:03 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: East Kent
Posts: 1,498
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Hoorah!
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If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. |
06-02-2007, 01:32 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Letchworth Garden City
Posts: 1,334
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Or even invertebrate |
06-02-2007, 01:42 PM
|  | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Dorchester, Dorset
Posts: 511
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
As long as its alive and not a plant or a fugus, its an animal. That includes you, me and Boris the spider. 
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06-02-2007, 01:51 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Little village called Chedworth
Posts: 4,785
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Quote:
Originally Posted by wyevilla As long as its alive and not a plant or a fugus, its an animal. That includes you, me and Boris the spider. | define alive? I mean more than being the opposite of dead...... |
06-02-2007, 02:02 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,389
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Quote:
Originally Posted by wyevilla As long as its alive and not a plant or a fugus, its an animal. That includes you, me and Boris the spider. | Or a prokaryote, or a eukaryote or even (nowadays) a Slime Mould!
henrya
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06-02-2007, 02:07 PM
| | Active Member | | Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 69
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
just told your joke to my workmates badgerwatcher to a mixture of laughter and bermusement... |
06-02-2007, 02:14 PM
| | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Dorchester, Dorset
Posts: 511
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Being alive would include the ability to absorb nutrients, grow and reproduce. There is also a degree of complexity (of structure and chemical balance) that needs to be maintained by the organism. This clearly requires energy to be obtained and utilised in order for these functions to be carried out.
That, to me is life at its most minimal.
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06-02-2007, 02:19 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Little village called Chedworth
Posts: 4,785
| | | Re: If insects were bigger would they be animals?
Quote:
Originally Posted by wyevilla Being alive would include the ability to absorb nutrients, grow and reproduce. There is also a degree of complexity (of structure and chemical balance) that needs to be maintained by the organism. This clearly requires energy to be obtained and utilised in order for these functions to be carried out.
That, to me is life at its most minimal. | cor digging right into the ancient undisturbed history of previous biological education in my brain, isn't there something about excreting too? | | | |
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