Terrestrial Animals Definition

Terrestrial animals reside, grows, and reproduce on land.

An ecological environment inhabited by a certain species is called a habitat. There are different types of habitats depending upon their locations. The examples of different habitats include terrestrial, and aquatic.

Terrestrial animals are those animals that live and thrive on land. Terrestrial animals spend their entire life cycle on lands whereas aquatic animals live predominantly in water.

Cats, ants, dogs, racoons, spiders, kangaroos, tigers, lions, mice, bats, bulls, leopards, elephants, and many more animals are examples of terrestrial animals.

Some animals also live underground that are called rock-dwelling or saxicolous animals. Arenicolous animals live in the sand such as an arenicolous spiny lizard. The animals that can live in both in water and land are called amphibious.

The examples includes turtles, crocodiles, etc. In evolutionary context, the invasion of terrestrial animals during the Cenozoic is a significant event. These animals successfully adapted the dry environment and eventually dropped the need for an aquatic phase to complete their life cycle.