From Bereshit - Midrash Rabba:
"If Adam had been created out of spiritual elements only there could be no death for him, in the event of his fall. If, on the other hand, he had been created out of matter only, there could be no future bliss for him. Hence he was formed out of matter and spirit. If he lives the earthly, i.e., the animal life only, he dies like all matter; if he lives a spiritual life he obtains the spiritual future bliss."
Such observations as this make a statement about a certain aspect of human nature with poetic language. If the language is understood as though it were speaking clinically about the nature of the relationship of life and matter in the human being it could seem to be saying that in animals life and matter are of the same mortal nature but in Adam life and matter are of entirely different natures and that they are simply stuck together by some mysterious force, the mortal and the immortal.
It is very important that this misimpression not occur, or that if it does occur that it is corrected. Just as in all animals, life and matter in the human being are organically one. It is not somehow unnatural for the spiritual force of life to be united with matter in the human being but not in other creatures. Such a notion can lead to all sorts of false philosphies and theologies.
To clarify this, the distinction between Adam and the animals according to the Torah of G-d is that Adam was created with the potential of obeying or disobeying G-d's commandment. This unique potential meant that Adam's form of life had the potential for transcending mortality. This does not mean that all the other living creatures of heaven and earth have no hope of immortality. Precisely to the contrary, Adam is by nature so intedependent in creation with all other creatures that Adam could never be transformed into an immortal condition, body and soul, without all creation being transformed with them. If this transformation of all creation did not occur, Adam would simply not be Adam.
How Adam fell into complete mortality and therefore doomed all creation but was not abandoned in this state by the God of Israel is the story of the joy of all creation!