From what were animals created, if humans were created from clay?

"Sound hadiths state that angels were created from light, jinn from smokeless fire, and Adam from what is described in the Quran and Sunnah (definition): from dust, then a drop of fluid, then a clinging clot. As for the origin of the creation of animals and beasts, there is no explicit evidence for it. Some have gone so far as to say that they were created from water, based on the verse, 'And Allah has created every [moving] creature from water,' but exegetes differ on the meaning of 'water' here. Others have gone so far as to say that they were created from dust, based on the hadith (definition) that they will turn into dust on the Day of Resurrection, but this deduction is questionable. In conclusion: there is no definitive text that specifies the origin of the creation of animals and beasts, and this is one of the matters of the unseen about which one should not assert anything that has not been specified by the texts."