Sites for Teachers
Google
 
Join the Mailing List
Enter your name and email address below:
Name:
Email:
Subscribe  Unsubscribe 
Get Acrobat Reader Now
UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED OUR FILES
ARE CREATED IN .PDF FORMAT - YOU
MAY DOWNLOAD ACROBAT HERE
Home    About    Contact    Audio Books   Lit Arts    Language      Pre-K      Free ESL Resources     Online Games    Book of the Day     Maths   Gallery
Other
Private Property Rentals
Perkal Gifts
Click Here Now!
Luxury Gifting Online
Fire your boss
AddThis Feed Button
Add to My Yahoo!
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
Aardvark
Conservation Status: Least Concern
The Aardvark (Orycteropus afer) ("Digging foot"), sometimes called "antbear" is
a medium-sized mammal native to Africa. The name comes from the
Afrikaans/Dutch for "earth pig" (aarde earth, varken pig), because early settlers
from Europe thought it resembled a pig. However, the Aardvark is not closely
related to pigs, being placed in its own order.

The most distinctive characteristic of the Tubulidentata is (as the name implies)
their teeth, which, instead of having a pulp cavity, have a number of thin tubes
of dentine, each containing pulp and held together by cementum. The teeth
have no enamel coating and are worn away and regrow continuously. The
Aardvark is born with conventional incisors and canines at the front of the jaw,
but these fall out and are not replaced. Adult Aardvarks have only molars at
the back of the jaw.

The Aardvark is only vaguely pig-like; the body of the aardvark is sparsely
scattered with coarse hairs; the body is stout with an arched back; the limbs
are of moderate length. The front feet have lost the pollex (or 'thumb') —
resulting in four toes — but the rear feet have all five toes. Each toe bears a
large, robust nail which is somewhat flattened and shovel-like, and appears to
be intermediate between a claw and a hoof. The ears are disproportionately
long, and the tail is very thick at the base and gradually tapers. The greatly
elongated head is set on a short, thick neck, and the end of the snout bears a
disc, which house the nostrils. The mouth is small and tubular, typical of species
that feed on termites. The aardvark has a long, thin, protrudable tongue and
elaborate structures supporting a keen sense of smell.

An aardvark's weight is typically between 40 and 65 kg; length is usually
between 1 and 1.3 meters, and can reach lengths of 2.2 meters[1] when its
heavy tail (which can be up to 70 centimetres)[1] is taken into account. The
aardvark is a pale yellowish grey in colour, often stained reddish-brown by soil.
The coat is thin and the animal's primary protection is its tough skin; the
aardvark has been known to sleep in a recently excavated ant nest, so well
does it protect them.



Watch Videos
Some Information & Graphics obtained from Wikipedia
Download this Fun Fact eBook
with notebooking pages.  
Click on the thumbnail or
right-click and "save as" to
your computer.
Awesome fun!! Aardvark Limerick  from www.englishtoday.co.uk