A Tool to Breathe Some animals have a special use for their skin. Frogs breathe through their skin. T eir skin is so thin oxygen moves right through it. Carbon dioxide moves out. A frog uses both its lungs and its skin for breathing. You can’t use your skin to breathe.


Yet skin protects you. It controls your temperature. It helps you feel things. We owe a lot to the skin we’re in.


Wordwise


cell: the smallest living part of an animal or plant


dermis: the middle layer of skin epidermis: the top layer of skin hypodermis: the bottom layer of skin


organ: a part of the body that does a specifi c job


skin: the body’s outer covering and largest organ


A pattern on this boa constrictor’s skin helps it hide in its environment.


Skin Deep


Some animals use skin in different ways than we do.


This chameleon changes the color of its skin to communicate.


Skin coated in slime protects this sea slug against predators.


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