The Animal Kingdom

The Illustrated Menagerie celebrates the animal kingdom and our appreciation of it as a subject for creative thought. The images shown are produced as a result of the close investigation of a chosen animal, and a desire to illustrate one aspect of it.

Kingdoms of life
All living things are classified into five kingdoms by biologists according to their fundamental similarities. These five kingdoms make up the Kingdoms of life; Animals, Plants, Funghi, Protists and Monerans.

The Illustrated Menagerie divides the animal kingdom into key classification groups;
mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates

Mammal
Mammal n. 1. any animal of the Mammalia, a large class of warm-blooded vertebrates having mammary glands in the female. (Collins Concise Dictionary


Bird

Bird n. 1. any warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrate, characterised by a body covering of feathers and forelimbs modified as wings. (Collins Concise Dictionary)

Invertebrate

Invertebrate n. 1. any animal lacking a backbone, including all species not classified as vertebrate


Reptile
Reptile n. 1. any of the cold-blooded vertebrates characterised by lungs, an outer covering of horny scales or plates, and young produced in eggs, such as the tortoises, turtles, snakes, lizards, and crocodiles. (Collins Concise Dictionary)


Amphibian
Amphibian n. 1. any cold-blooded vertebrate of the class Amphibia, typically living on land but breeding in water. The class includes frogs, toads, newts. (Collins Concise Dictionary)

Fish Fish n. 1. any of a large group of cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates having jaws, gills, and usually fins and a skin covered in scales: includes the sharks, rays, teleosts, lungfish,  etc. (Collins Concise Dictionary)