1 Etymology 2 Characteristics 2.1 Structure 2.2 Reproduction and development 2.

3 Food and energy sourcing 3 Origin and fossil record 4 Groups of animals 4.1 Ctenophora, Porifera, Placozoa, Cnidaria and Bilateria 4.2 Deuterostomes 4.3 Ecdysozoa 4.4 Platyzoa 4.5 Lophotrochozoa 5 Model organisms 6 History of classification 7 See also 8 References 9 Bibliography 10 External links Etymology The word "animal" comes from the Latin word animalis, meaning "having breath".[1 ] In everyday colloquial usage the word incorrectly excludes humans that is, "anim al" is often used to refer only to non-human members of the kingdom Animalia. So metimes, only closer relatives of humans such as mammals and other vertebrates a re meant in colloquial use.[2] The biological definition of the word refers to a ll members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures as diverse as sponges , jellyfish, insects, and humans.[3] Characteristics Animals have several characteristics that set them apart from other living thing s. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular,[4] which separates them from bacter ia and most protists. They are heterotrophic,[5] generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae.[6] They are also d istinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking rigid cell walls.[7] All a nimals are motile,[8] if only at certain life stages. In most animals, embryos p ass through a blastula stage,[9] which is a characteristic exclusive to animals. Structure With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges (Phylum Porifera) and Placozoa, animals have bodies differentiated into separate tissues. These include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and nerve tissues, which sen d and process signals. Typically, there is also an internal digestive chamber, w ith one or two openings.[10] Animals with this sort of organization are called m etazoans, or eumetazoans when the former is used for animals in general.[11] All animals have eukaryotic cells, surrounded by a characteristic extracellular matrix composed of collagen and elastic glycoproteins.[12] This may be calcified to form structures like shells, bones, and spicules.[13] During development, it forms a relatively flexible framework[14] upon which cells can move about and b e reorganized, making complex structures possible. In contrast, other multicellu lar organisms, like plants and fungi, have cells held in place by cell walls, an d so develop by progressive growth.[10] Also, unique to animal cells are the fol lowing intercellular junctions: tight junctions, gap junctions, and desmosomes.[ 15] Reproduction and development See also: Sexual reproduction#Animals and Asexual reproduction#Examples in anima ls A newt lung cell stained with fluorescent dyes undergoing the early anaphase sta

ge of mitosis Nearly all animals undergo some form of sexual reproduction.[16] They have a few specialized reproductive cells, which undergo meiosis to produce smaller, motil e spermatozoa or larger, non-motile ova.[17] These fuse to form zygotes, which d evelop into new individuals.[18] Many animals are also capable of asexual reproduction.[19] This may take place t hrough parthenogenesis, where fertile eggs are produced without mating, budding, or fragmentation.[20] A zygote initially develops into a hollow sphere, called a blastula,[21] which u ndergoes rearrangement and differentiation. In sponges, blastula larvae swim to a new location and develop into a new sponge.[22] In most other groups, the blas tula undergoes more complicated rearrangement.[23] It first invaginates to form a gastrula with a digestive chamber, and two separate germ layers an external ec toderm and an internal endoderm.[24] In most cases, a mesoderm also develops bet ween them.[25] These germ layers then differentiate to