Animals are categorised into ecological groups depending on how they obtain or consume

organic material, including carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, detritivores, and parasites.

Interactions between animals form complex food webs. In carnivorous or omnivorous
species, predationis a consumer-resource interaction where a predator feeds on another
organism (called its prey). Selective pressures imposed on one another lead to an
evolutionary arms racebetween predator and prey, resulting in various anti-predator
adaptations. Almost all multicellular predators are animals. Some consumers use multiple
methods; for example, in parasitoid wasps, the larvae feed on the hosts' living tissues,
killing them in the process, but the adults primarily consume nectar from flowers. Other
animals may have very specific feeding behaviours, such as hawksbill sea turtles that
primarily eat sponges.

The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is the largest animal that has ever lived, weighing
up to 190 metric tonnes and measuring up to 33.6 metres (110 ft) long. The largest extant
terrestrial animal is the African bush elephant(Loxodonta africana), weighing up to 12.25
tonnes and measuring up to 10.67 metres (35.0 ft) long.The largest terrestrial animals
that ever lived were titanosaursauropod dinosaurs such as Argentinosaurus, which may
have weighed as much as 73 tonnes. Several animals are microscopic; some Myxozoa
(obligate parasites within the Cnidaria) never grow larger than 20 µm, and one of the
smallest species (Myxobolus shekel) is no more than 8.5 µm when fully grown.

System Nature book

In it, he outlined his ideas for the hierarchical classification of the natural world, dividing it
into the animal kingdom (regnum animale), the plant kingdom (regnum vegetabile), and
the "mineral kingdom" (regnum lapideum).

Linnaeus's Systema Naturae lists only about 10,000 species of organisms, of which about
6,000 are plants and 4,236 are animals.According to the historian of botany William T.
Stearn, "Even in 1753 he believed that the number of species of plants in the whole world
would hardly reach 10,000; in his whole career he named about 7,700 species of flowering
plants."
Linnaeus believed in God's creation, and that there were no deeper relationships to be
expressed. He is frequently quoted to have said: "God created, Linnaeus organized" (Latin:
Deus creavit, Linnaeus disposuit). The classification of animals was more natural.

At the close of the 18th century, his system had effectively become the standard system
for biological classification.

Animal Kingdom

Only in the Animal Kingdom is the higher taxonomy of Linnaeus still more or less
recognizable and some of these names are still in use, but usually not quite for the same
groups as used by Linnaeus. He divided the Animal Kingdom into six classes.

Plant Kingdom

The orders and classes of plants, according to his Systema Sexuale, were never intended
to represent natural groups (as opposed to his ordines naturales in his Philosophia
Botanica) but only for use in identification. They were used in that sense well into the 19th
century.

Mineral Kingdoms

Linnaeus's taxonomy of minerals has long since fallen out of use. In the 10th edition, 1758,
of the Systema Naturæ, the Linnaean classes were:

Classis 1. Petræ (rocks)

Classis 2. Mineræ (minerals and ores)

Classis 3. Fossilia (fossils and aggregates)

The 10 Strangest Animal Discoveries of 2015

Animal
Animals are creatures in the kingdom Animalia, one of the five major divisions of
organisms. They are multicelled, eukaryotic (pronounced yookar-ee-AH-tik) organisms,
meaning their cells contain nuclei and other structures called organelles, all of which are
enclosed by thin membranes. (Eukaryote means "true nucleus.") Unlike plants, their cells
do not have cell walls. Animals are capable of moving their bodies, often in response to
what they sense in their environment. For food, animals ingest plants and other
organisms. The scientific study of animals is called zoology.

Animals have existed for millions of years, but it is not known when they first appeared on
Eart

In human culture

The human population exploits a large number of other animal species for food, both of
domesticated livestock species in animal husbandry and, mainly at sea, by hunting wild
species. Marine fish of many species are caught commercially for food. A smaller number
of species are farmed commercially. Invertebrates including cephalopods, crustaceans,
and bivalve or gastropod molluscs are hunted or farmed for food. Chickens, cattle, sheep,
pigs and other animals are raised as livestock for meat across the world.

Animal fibres such as wool are used to make textiles, while animal sinews have been used
as lashings and bindings, and leather is widely used to make shoes and other items.
Animals have been hunted and farmed for their fur to make items such as coats and hats.

Dyestuffs including carmine(cochineal), shellac, and kermes have been made from the
bodies of insects. Working animals including cattle and horses have been used for work
and transport from the first days of agriculture.

Animals such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster serve a major role in science as
experimental models. Animals have been used to create vaccines since their discovery in
the 18th century. Some medicines such as the cancer drug Yondelisare based on toxins or
other molecules of animal origin.

Humans make use of many other animal species for food, including meat, milk, and eggs;
for materials, such as leather and wool; as pets; and as working animals for power and
transport. Dogs have been used in hunting, while many terrestrial and aquatic animals are
hunted for sport. Non-human animals have appeared in art from the earliest times and
are featured in mythology and religion.