natural science 5

The classification of living things

How are living things classified?

The Animal kingdom can be divided into vertebrates and invertebrates. Fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals are all vertebrates. Worms and snails are invertebrates: they don’t have a spinal column.

Groups of living things with similar cells are called kingdoms. There are five kingdoms: Animal, Plant, Monera, Fungi and Protista.

What are the characteristics of mammals?

All mammals have lungs to breathe. Mammals have skin and hair. Most mammals have four legs. Almost all mammals are viviparous.

What are the characteristics of reptiles?

Reptiles have hard scales. Reptiles have lungs to breathe. Many reptiles have four legs, but snakes don’t have legs. Reptiles are oviparous.

What are the characteristics of fish?

Fish breathe with their gills. They have a long body covered with scales. Fish have fins and tails. Almost all fish are oviparous.

What are the characteristics of birds?

Birds have lungs and four extremities: two wings and two legs. Birds have aerodynamic bodies. Birds are oviparous.

What are the characteristics of amphibians?

Amphibians have thin, smooth skin and they have four legs. When they’re young, they have gills to breathe. When they become adults, they grow lungs to breathe. Amphibians are oviparous.

How do we classify invertebrate animals?

Invertebrate animals are classified into six groups: arthropods, molluscs, porifera, coelenterates, echinoderms and annelids.

What different types of body coverings do invertebrates have?

Hard shell Exoskeleton No protective body covering

How can we classify seed plants?

Angiosperms Gymnosperms

Angiosperms produce flowers. Gymnosperms produce cones.

How can we classify non-seed plants?

Ferns Mosses

Non-seed plants produce spores.

What are the Monera, Fungi and Protista kingdoms like?

Many multicellular fungi consist of a cap, a stem and a network of hyphae. These are long tubular structures.

Monerans are simple unicellular organisms. They don’t have bodies.

Protists can be unicellular or multicellular.

What have we learnt?

Plant Monera Fungi Protista

There are five kingdoms ...

Animal

What have we learnt?

reptiles fish amphibians birds

Vertebrates can be classified into...

mammals

What have we learnt?

molluscs echinoderms coelenterates porifera

Invertebrates can be classifed into...

arthropods annelids