Is a scorpion an animal?

Question

There has been some debate as to whether a scorpion is an insect or an animal...it relates to animal abuse.

Answer 1

Scorpions are animals.

Insects are also animals

Scorpions are NOT insects.

Scorpions are arachnids.

Arachnids are also animals (hell, even amoebae are animals!)

To go into a little more detail:

Scorpions are in the order Scorpiones of the class Arachnida of the phylum Arthropoda of the kingdom Animalia (which is what scientifically makes them animals).

Answer 2

Animals include reptiles, birds, mammals, fish, insects, sponges, slugs, snails... and more. A scorpion is definately an animal, though it is not an insect. Insects are also animals.

You might be trying to say is it an invertebrate (has no backbone... like worms, insects and spiders) or a vertebrate (has a backbone... like mammals, birds and fish). In this case, it is an invertebrate. You should not use this to decide on animal rights issues. Cephalopods, a type of sea invertebrate, are able to problem solve and have an intelligent comparable to land vertebrates. They clearly deserve the same animal rights as equivalent vertebrates.

Animal rights is generally not based on the overall type of animal, but on the specific animal species. Most people use a definition of whether the animal seems to be able to suffer and feel pain to decide what deserves protection. This is a very debatable issue. I've found a basic discussions of it you might find useful.

http://animal-rights.net/ar-faq/#INSECTS%20AND%20PLANTS

Scorpions are not that primitive. They have some quite complex behaviours, such as care of offspring. It is likely that they feel pain. I don't know what species you want to know about, but this one gives you a general feel for what they're like (it also shows where they fit as far as being an animal goes... see the classification thing at the side):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_scorpion

Answer 3

A scorpion is an invertebrate animal with eight legs, belonging to the order Scorpiones in the class Arachnida. It is related to the spiders. Not an insect. Insects have only 6 legs. Other terrestrial arthropods, such as centipedes, millipedes, scorpions and spiders, are sometimes confused with insects since their body plans can appear similar, sharing (as do all arthropods) a jointed exoskeleton. However upon closer examination their features differ significantly; most noticeably they do not have six legs characteristic of insects

Answer 4

A scorpion is an invertibrate "animal" of the class arachnida.Invertibrates are "animals" with out a backbone.The scorpion isn't an insect.But this doesnot mean that insects are not animals,they are invertibrates from a different class.

Answer 5

A scorpion is an invertebrate animal with eight legs, belonging to the order.

Physical characteristics
The scorpion body is divided into two segments: the cephalothorax (also called the prosoma) and the abdomen/opisthosoma. The abdomen consists of the mesosoma and the metasoma.

Cephalothorax/prosoma: the scorpion's “head”, comprising the carapace, eyes, chelicerae (mouth parts), pedipalps (claw) and the four pairs of walking legs.

Mesosoma: the abdomen's front half, is made up of six segments. The first segment contains the sexual organs as well as a pair of vestigial and modified appendages forming a structure called the genital operculum. The second segment bears a pair of featherlike sensory organs known as the pectines; the final four segments each contain a pair of book lungs. The mesosoma is armored with chitinous plates, the tergites plates upper surface and the sternites plates the lower surface.

Metasoma: the scorpion's tail, comprising six segments (the first tail segment looks like a last mesosoman segment), the last containing the scopion's anus and bearing the telson (the sting). The telson, in turn, consists of the vesicle, which holds a pair of venom (poison) glands and the hypodermic aculeus, the vemon injecting barbex.

Cuticle: this makes a tough armor around the body. In some places it is covered with hairs that act like balance organs. An outer layer that makes them fluoresce green under ultraviolet light is called the hyaline layer. Newly molted scorpions do not glow until after their cuticle has hardened. The fluoresent hyaline layer can be intact in fossil rocks that are hundreds of millions of years old.

Main physical features
Pedipalps: the long front appendages that end in the so-called "claws" (the correct term is chelae or "pincers"). Some believe these were originally legs that were modified during evolution. The pedipalps are used primarily for prey capture but also play an important part in the scorpion mating dance. They are made of up of six segments. The chela (pincer) itself consists of the upper fixed finger (tibia) and the lower movable finger (tarsus). The pincers' size is highly dependent on the species; however, a general trend is that the more venomous the scorpion, the narrower the pincers, as scorpions with less potent venom use their larger pincers to subdue prey.

Pectines: these are a pair of feather-like sensory organs, consisting of a row of pegs, and are unique in scorpions. The pectines are located beneath the scorpion, attached to the sternum. They constantly touch the ground and play an important role in the scorpion's sensory equipment. The pectines are covered in thousands of chemosensors that allow the scorpion to detect minute chemical signals in their environment; they probably play an important role in social interaction, mating and hunting.

Eyes: fossil scorpions had compound eyes, modern scorpions in general have three sets of eyes. One pair located in the top centre of the carapace are called the median eyes. There are two more sets of lateral eyes on either side of the front of prosoma, the number varies between species. In total, there are usually from three and up to six pairs of eyes present. Some species of cave- and litter-dwelling scorpions, however, have no eyes, relying purely on their other senses. Scorpions' eyes are primitive organs, only able to detect regions of strongly contrasting light intensity, such as horizons. The eyes, however, are very sensitive; some have theorised that they even allow the scorpion to navigate by star light and help regulate the scorpion's circadian rhythm. It is doubtful as to whether they are used in prey capture.

Two tails
On rare occasions, scorpions can be born with two metasoma (tails). Two-tailed scorpions are not a species, but rather a genetic abnormality.[1].

You could get more information from the link below...

Answer 6

I think you are getting your terminology confused there. There is a big difference between an animal and a mammal....
scorpions, all incest other spiders, millipedes, crabs and all other arthropods belong to the kingdom ANIMALIA, making them all animals by definition. They are just a different group of animals just like the mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes and amphibians.

hope this clears things up for you...

Answer 7

voidedius tells it right it is not insect.
everything that moves on its own is an animal.
Don't go abusing it or you might get stung.

Answer 8

It's a insect

Answer 9

damn, what is this world coming to? Of course it's an animal. Jesus, what's with people these days?

Answer 10

Actually it is an insect and in turn insects are animals as there are only two kingdoms, Plants kingdom and Animal kingdom.