What characteristic places the zebrafish in Kingdom Animalia?
Answer
Obtains energy by consuming other organisms.
The placement in the Kingdom Animalia signifies that the organism is a multicellular, eukaryotic entity that must acquire energy by ingesting other organisms, contrasting sharply with autotrophs like plants and algae which produce their own food via photosynthesis. While the other choices describe characteristics found at lower taxonomic levels in the zebrafish—the notochord being a chordate feature, ray fins defining Actinopterygii, and scale types relating to Cyprinidae—the defining characteristic for the broadest grouping, Animalia, is its heterotrophic mode of energy acquisition.

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