Earth-82
Beast Wars opens at an unspecified time and place, where two warring factions of robots have crashed on a strange planet populated by animals like those on Earth. The planet abounds in mystery, with vast deposits of raw energon and evidence of alien activity. The Energon forces the newly arrived Transformers to take on protective beast forms to shield themselves from the ambient Energon radiation. And so begin the Beast Wars...

Maximals

Arising from the ashes of the Great War, the Maximals are the descendants (at least in part) of the Autobots, controlling Cybertron under the Pax Cybertronia. The Maximals and their counterpart race the Predacons both owe their origins to the Great Upgrade, which provided the downsized, fuel-efficient bodies that became the hallmark of the successor factions.
In many ways, the Maximals share traits with their Autobot ancestors; primarily a "civilian" race, the Maximals are committed to upholding the peaceful, democratic values of their forebears. All this said, they aren't perfect: they still have their jerks, and Maximal science has occasionally resulted in the odd unethical scientific horrors.
The most distinctive factor of both Maximal and Predacon physiology is their development of pseudo-organic beast modes, allowing both sides to adopt alternate modes that blend in seamlessly with the organic lifeforms found elsewhere in the universe. This technology, an offshoot of earlier Pretender tech,[1] sheathes a beast mode in an artificial organic skin, integrating its natural instincts directly into the Maximal form.
When Maximals take on beast modes, they tend to select mammals, birds or fish, although this is not a hard-and-fast rule. Occasionally, Maximals might choose to become insects, reptiles, or dinosaurs.
The Maximal activation code is "Maximize".

Optimus Primal	Rhinox	Cheetor	Rattrap	Dinobot

Airrazor	Blackarachnia	Silverbolt	Tigatron	Depth Charge

Predacons

Arising from the ashes of the Great War, the Predacons are, at least in part, descendants of the Decepticons. Some sources suggest that they were born from what remained of the original five Predacons.[1] By order of the Pax Cybertronia, they exist as something of an underclass, appearing to be equals, but firmly under the Maximals in the social order. This has led many Predacons to hold bitter grudges against the Maximals.
Predacons tend to take reptilian or arthropod beast modes, although this is not a hard-and-fast rule. They can also turn into less-than-realistic sea creatures and military vehicles.
The adjective for "of or pertaining to the Predacons" is Predaconial, though it is extremely common to simply substitute 'Predacon'.