Grey wolves have long embodied the spirit of the wilderness. Once they had the largest natural distribution of any mammal except humans. Sadly, they can no longer claim this record as they have been lost from much of their former lands. Grey wolves still occupy a range of habitats including Arctic tundra, prairies and forests.
Although melanin is found in the skin of many species, in the reptiles, the amphibians, and fish, the epidermis is often relatively colourless. Instead, the colour of the skin is largely due to chromatophores in the dermis, which, in addition to melanin, may contain guanine or carotenoid pigments.kin of a different nature exists in amphibians, reptiles, and birds. All mammals have some hair on their skin, even marine mammals which appear to be hairless. The skin interfaces with the environment and is the first line of defense from external factors.
The largest living amphibian is the 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus), but this is dwarfed by the extinct 9 m (30 ft) Prionosuchus from the middle Permian of Brazil. The study of amphibians is called batrachology, while the study of both reptiles and amphibians is called herpetology.mphibians use their skin as a secondary respiratory surface and some small terrestrial salamanders and frogs lack lungs and rely entirely on their skin. They are superficially similar to reptiles but, along with mammals and birds, reptiles are amniotes and do not require water bodies in which to breed.