Animal Life in Oceans

Animal Life in Oceans

Animal Life in Oceans
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 4 to 8
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	8.18

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		canyons, life-threatening, selection, tactics, despite, rests, contrast, hence, survival, species, biome, satellite, easily, predator, escape, identical
	content words:		Mount Everest, Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench

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Animal Life in Oceans

¹     When we look at the satellite picture of our globe, we see a vast area of blue that covers over 70% of the Earth's surface or about 130 million square miles. The blue signifies the largest biome on our planet - oceans.

²     Although oceans occupy a big part of the Earth's surface, they only house 200,000 or 10% of the Earth's animal species. In contrast, the rain forest biome takes up just 3 million square miles, but about 1 million or 50% of animal species have their home there. Despite a rather small selection of animals, marine life is amazingly diversified. Many of the oddest-looking animals, such as octopuses and viperfish, are found in oceans.

³     On land, we have mountains, volcanoes, plateaus, plains, canyons, and other natural wonders. Underwater, we have the same landscapes. On land, the highest point is the peak of Mount Everest at 29,035 feet. Underwater, the deepest point is the Challenger Deep of Mariana Trench at 36,198 feet. On land, we experience earthquakes and volcano eruptions. Underwater, marine animals live through identical life-threatening events. On land, we have sunrise and sunset, and sunlight shines on every place for at least a couple of months a year. Underwater, sunlight cannot reach places deeper than 825 feet and many marine animals live in complete darkness all year round!

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