This is a great question because it suggests that you wonder what makes humans "distinct." Of course, there are many kinds of animals, but we can say that mammals are different than most other animals in some key ways - they tend to invest more maternal (mom) energy in reproduction (longer gestation and extended care of young). Along with this tends to come higher social behavior and larger brain size per body size ratios. Comparing a bit more specifically, we can look at primates (which includes humans). And among those, let's compare chimpanzees and humans. What makes us a different? First, our brains are larger (per body weight). It's not because we are born with larger brains, it is because human brains continue to grow and develop past the teen years. A chimp new born's brain does not grown much after just a few weeks. Second, when you look carefully at each gene in a chimp and a human, the similarity is really striking. They are very very close (just a few percentage differs). But the little differences apparently matter. Of the genes that are different or are present in humans and not in chimps, almost all of them are expressed (used) in the central nervous system (including the brain) - and a key gene that is present only in human primates appears to be tightly associated with spoken language ability.

Very generally, being an animal means having a lot of complex cells,having the ability to move around and eat food. That makes us animals! Some animals do have characteristics that we do not (we can't fly, for example), but if we're just talking about the big group called animals, we're included in that group.

Huh? We ARE animals. There is nothing that animals, categorically speaking, don't have. There are some things that SOME animals have that we don't, but then we have some things that no other animal has either.

This really can't be answered since scientifically we are classified as animals. Now I can say that some animals have physical attributes that we do not have. Some of these include being able to see clearly in the dark, see in different types of light (ultraviolet or infrared), breathe underwater,fly, hang by a tail, and vocalizations that can be heard over hundreds of miles (humpback whale songs). The list of differences can go on forever.