Animals are multicellular eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, reproduce sexually, and grow from a hollow sphere of cells, the blastula, during embryonic development. Over 1.5 million living animal species have been described—of which around 1 million are insects—but it has been estimated there are over 7 million in total. Animals range in size from 8.5 millionths of a metre to 33.6 metres (110 ft) long and have complex interactions with each other and their environments, forming intricate food webs. The study of animals is called zoology.

The giant panda is a vulnerable species
The use of love darts by the land snail Monachoides vicinus is a form of sexual selection
Adult silk worm

Animals may be listed or indexed by many criteria, including taxonomy, status as endangered species, their geographical location, and their portrayal and/or naming in human culture.

By common name

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By aspect

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By domestication

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Water buffalo

By eating behaviour

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By endangered status

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The Andean mountain cat is an endangered species.

By extinction

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List of extinct animals

By region

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By individual (real or fictional)

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Animals

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Fictional

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By taxonomical classification

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Phyla

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The relative number of species contributed to the total by each phylum of animals

The animal Kingdom contains some 35 extant phyla.

Basal animals are delineated according to the following cladogram:

Choanozoa (950)

Animals: Porifera, Diploblasts

Diploblasts: Ctenophora, ParaHoxozoa

ParaHoxozoa: Placozoa, Cnidaria, Bilateria/Triploblast

Bilateria: Xenacoelomorpha, Nephrozoa

Nephrozoa: Protostomes, Deuterostomes

Chordata

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Fish

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Amphibians

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Reptiles

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References

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  1. ^ Liu, Yunhuan; Carlisle, Emily; Zhang, Huaqiao; Yang, Ben; Steiner, Michael; Shao, Tiequan; Duan, Baichuan; Marone, Federica; Xiao, Shuhai; Donoghue, Philip C. J. (17 August 2022). "Saccorhytus is an early ecdysozoan and not the earliest deuterostome". Nature. 609 (7927): 541–546. Bibcode:2022Natur.609..541L. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05107-z. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 35978194. S2CID 251646316.