Animal
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia.
Overview
With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a hollow sphere of cells, the blastula, during embryonic development.
There are 2.16 million living animal species have been described—of which around 1.05 million are insects (Insecta), over 85,000 are molluscs (Mollusca), and around 65,000 that are vertebrates.
It has been estimated there are around 7.77 million animal species, and they range in length from 0.00033 inches (8.5 micrometers) to 110 feet (33.6 meters). They have complex interactions with each other and their environments, forming intricate food webs.
The scientific study of animals is known as zoology.
Humans
Biologically, humans (modern humans [Homo sapiens]) fall under the animal kingdom and are in this sense animals. However, sometimes confusion arises because the word is also used contrastively with "human", indicating non-human animals.
They make use of many animal species, such as for food (including meat, milk, and eggs), for materials (such as leather and wool), as pets, and as working animals including for transport. Dogs have been used in hunting, as have birds of prey, while many terrestrial and aquatic animals were hunted for sports.
Non-human animals have appeared in art since the earliest times and are featured in mythology and religion.
Animals and furry
Animals (normally anthropomorphic) are the main cornerstone of the furry fandom culture, and they are normally called furries, anthros, or funny animals, and their attributes include exhibiting human intelligence and facial expressions, speaking, walking on two legs (with a few exceptions; i.e. hexapeds, octopeds, pedes, pentapeds, and quadrupeds [quads]), and (most of the time) wearing clothes.
An anthro animal character created by someone to represent them as their persona or identity is called fursona and can be displayed via graphic art|, writing, as a plush, a sculpture, a fursuit, etc.
Origin
Animal characters, normally known as original characters (OC, i.e not derived from any official media sources ["canon"]) can also be categorized by their origin:
- Author-based - Not associated with any product, with some borrowed art styles from some artistic medias
- Fan-based - Created by furry fans of the universe of any work, to fit in with the fictional universe and/or characters of that particular story. Generally found in fan fiction, but can also be a fursona or roleplay character.
See also
External links
- Animal on the Encyclopædia Britannica
- Animal on the Cambridge dictionary
- Animal on the Merriam-Webster dictionary
- Animal search results in DeviantArt
- Animal search results in Fur Affinity
This stub about a term could be expanded. |
Some of this page is derived from Wikipedia. The original article was at animal. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WikiFur, the text of Wikipedia is available under CC-BY-SA and the GFDL. |
Documentation
- This documentation is transcluded from Template:Animal/doc and needs to be edited separately.