Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the

kingdom Animalia (also called Metazoa). Their body plan

eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some
undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their lives.
Most animals are motile, meaning they can move
spontaneously and independently. All animals must ingest
other organisms or their products for sustenance (see
Heterotroph).

Most known animal phyla appeared in the fossil record as
marine species during the Cambrian explosion, about 542
million years ago. Animals are divided into various sub-
groups, some of which are: vertebrates (birds, mammals,
amphibians, reptiles, fish); molluscs (clams, oysters,
octopuses, squid, snails); arthropods (millipedes,
centipedes, insects, spiders, scorpions, crabs, lobsters,
shrimp); annelids (earthworms, leeches); sponges; and
jellyfish.
The Archaea (singular archaeon) are a domain or kingdom of
single-celled microorganisms. These microbes are
prokaryotes, meaning they have no cell nucleus or any other
membrane-bound organelles in their cells.

Archaea were initially classified as bacteria, receiving the
name archaebacteria (in Kingdom Monera), but this
classification is outdated. Archaeal cells have unique
properties separating them from the other two domains of
life: Bacteria and Eukaryota. The Archaea are further divided
into four recognized phyla. Classification is difficult because
the majority have not been studied in the laboratory and
have only been detected by analysis of their nucleic acids in
samples from their environment.
Bacteria (singular: bacterium) constitute a large domain of
prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in
length, bacteria have a number of shapes, ranging from
spheres to rods and spirals. Bacteria were among the first
life forms to appear on Earth, and are present in most of its
habitats. Bacteria inhabit soil, water, acidic hot springs,
radioactive waste, and the deep portions of Earth's crust.
Bacteria also live in symbiotic and parasitic relationships
with plants and animals. They are also known to have
flourished in manned spacecraft.
A fungus is any member of a large group of eukaryotic
organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and
molds (British English: moulds), as well as the more familiar
mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi,
which is separate from plants, animals, protists, and bacteria.
One major difference is that fungal cells have cell walls that
contain chitin, unlike the cell walls of plants and some protists,
which contain cellulose, and unlike the cell walls of bacteria.
These and other differences show that the fungi form a single
group of related organisms, named the Eumycota (true fungi or
Eumycetes), that share a common ancestor (is a monophyletic
group). This fungal group is distinct from the structurally similar
myxomycetes (slime molds) and oomycetes (water molds).
Plants, also called green plants, are multicellular eukaryotes
of the kingdom Plantae. They form a clade that includes the
flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns,
clubmosses, hornworts, liverworts, mosses and the green
algae. Plants exclude the red and brown algae, the fungi,
archaea and bacteria.

Green plants have cell walls with cellulose and
characteristically obtain most of their energy from sunlight
via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts, derived from
endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria. Their chloroplasts
contain chlorophylls a and b which gives them their green
colour. Some plants are parasitic and have lost the ability to
produce normal amounts of chlorophyll or to
photosynthesize. Plants are also characterized by sexual
reproduction, modular and indeterminate growth, and an
alternation of generations, although asexual reproduction is
common.
The group of protists is now considered to mean diverse
phyla that are not closely related through evolution and
have different life cycles, trophic levels, modes of
locomotion and cellular structures. Besides their relatively
simple levels of organization, the protists do not have much
in common. They are unicellular, or they are multicellular
without specialized tissues, and this simple cellular
organization distinguishes the protists from other
eukaryotes, such as fungi, animals and plants.

The term protista was first used by Ernst Haeckel in 1866.
Protists were traditionally subdivided into several groups
based on similarities to the "higher" kingdoms: the
unicellular "animal-like" protozoa, the "plant-like"
protophyta (mostly unicellular algae), and the "fungus-like"
slime molds and water molds. These traditional subdivisions,
largely based on superficial commonalities, have been
replaced by classifications based on phylogenetics
(evolutionary relatedness among organisms). However, the
older terms are still used as informal names to describe the
morphology and ecology of various protists.