this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2025
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~~Correct me if I’m wrong but like isn’t every living thing an animal? Like trees and fungi too? Or is there something I’m missing?~~
I was wrong yall
Animals are one group or "kingdom" of life. Plants (such as trees) and fungi (such as mushrooms) each have their own kingdoms, and so do bacteria and a few other forms of life. They're organized this way to represent how closely related they are. Every single living thing in the animal kingdom is more closely related to every single other thing in the animal kingdom than to anything in any other kingdom.
As an example, chimpanzees, starfish, and earthworms are more closely related to each other than to a sunflower, so we call chimpanzees, starfish, and earthworms animals but not sunflowers. This is called "taxonomy" and there's a ton of different levels of how related things are, ranging from very distantly related to so closely related you can barely tell them apart. Kingdom isn't even the most broad!
You might have also heard that fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants, but that doesn't mean that fungi are animals, just that the lifeform that branched into fungi and animals did so a lot later than the one that branched into plants. In the end they're still distinct enough that we call them different kingdoms!
That was a well explained reply, thanks!
Thank you for putting my thoughts into much more eloquent words!
This is where the Chinese Language comes to shine. Animal, 动物, literally "moving object", so if it has roots (aka: plants, fungi), it cannot move on its own, therefore, not a 动物, Animal.
Like the words are self-explanatory, so beautiful.
(Please excuse me for interjecting my knowledge of the Chinese Language into everything lolz)
Wouldn't that make corals and sponges not animal, despite biologically being animals?
Can't remember for corals but sponge's larval stage moves around before deciding on a rock to call home.
Closes Chinese Dictionary
"Listen here you little shit..."
But I mean I guess they should make a new term called 植-动物 with the 植 (to plant, to establish) character from 植物 (planted/established objects, aka: plants), thus making it "planted- moving object", aka: plant-like animal; or conversely 动-植物 with the 动 (moving) from 动物 (moving objects, aka: animal), thus making it "moving- planted object", aka: animal-like plant.
Its like word lego.
English isn't that far off. Animal has the same root as animate, which is the Latin anima, "soul" or "breath." The English word plant has synonyms and general connotations of fixedness or non-intentionality.
No worries I know someone from hk who loves linguistics this will get me some brownie points
No trees are plants and fungi are fungi. Animals are multicellular organisms that are mobile and seek out food at a very basic description. Plants are multicellular non mobile that make their own food and fungi are somewhere between that. Closer to animals but not. Then there's the single cell life of bacteria and archea.
Sea sponges are animals and don't move.
Animals are a specific lineage of eukaryotic multicellular (mostly) organisms that lack cell walls.
The problem with evolution is that it likes to make exceptions to any descriptor based taxonomy. Any taxonomic category will ultimately be attempting to say "this genetic lineage". If a sea sponge species eventually develops chlorophyll and cell walls it'll still be an animal, but just a really fucking confusing one.
I wish we could use photosynthesis, even if it's just as a supplement like a hybrid vehicle.
I know some folks who spend their time in Brinstar who'd like a word.
Yep, traditional (non-phylogenetic) taxonomy creates problems like protists, the grab bag of eukaryota.
There are more species labeled protists than the sum of all their descendants.
Are they animals, plants, or fungi? Sure, why not!
Some are heterotrophs (eat things), some are autotrophs (energy from sun or chemicals), and others are mixotrophs (some of both). Some are motile, others immotile. Some are multicellular, most unicellular.
The problem is all taxonomy is arbitrary, and traditional taxonomy is pretty inconsistent. Phylogenetic taxonomy is still arbitrary, but using evolutionary relationships instead of "this monkey looks like other monkey" at least gets you more consistency in that system.
Before they attach to a rock they move around in a larval stage, same for anemones and some jellyfish species. There are exceptions to all of our classifications because nature doesn't have to play by any rules besides physics. Even the concept of species has no set definition because no matter what we come up with there are exceptions. Also "seek out" was a bit too specific, they have to take in food from outside themselves as they can't make their own energy like plants.
Paralyzed people too
But that's due to some sort of injury or disorder, not how they function standard.