What was one of the ways that people of ancient times classified plants and animals?

One of the ways that people of ancient times classified plants and animals is by use. Today, group the creatures, as they do the plants, on the premise of shared physical attributes. They put them in a progressive system of groupings, starting with the kingdom Animalia and continuing through phyla, classes, orders, families, genera and species.

In ancient times, people were not able to differentiate animals from one another based on their genetic characteristics like we can now via genetic analysis or discern them on the basis of their ancestory like we can now using a dichotomus key. In earlier times, the method of classification was simply based on how the people utizilized the animal. For example, there would be a classification of animals that were considered "food" and it would include all animals which could be hunted and consumed.