ABSTRACT
Many animals supply benefits to modern medicine. So much for a selection of animals' contributions to medicine in the form of their biodynamic compounds and life-styles. Numerous and diverse as these are, they are far surpassed by the medical insights that animals give us through their role as models for research. All forms of animal life, in short, can serve the needs of modern medicine. As in the case of medical research involving the plant kingdom, scientists have made only a bare start on the challenge of tapping our fellow animal species for the many ways in which they can support human health. When an animal encounters a problem, it can simply move away. The best source of animal alkaloids, however, appears to be in creatures that may not immediately spring to mind–marine organisms.
