Classification - The Kingdoms

8/3/2019 Classification - The Kingdoms

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Species are classified according to a taxonomic hierarchy, where

one large group is subdivided into subgroups, which in turn are

divided into smaller groups.

Kingdom↓

Phylum↓

Class↓

Order↓

Family↓

Genus↓

Species

There are 5 large kingdoms; Prokaryotes, Protoctists, Fungi,

Plants & Animals.

When talking about a species we don’t give the full classification,

just the species and the genus, e.g. an earthworm is Lumbricus

terrestrius . The genus is written first (starts with an upper case

letter), followed by the species name (starts with a lower case

letter). The entire name is written in Italics . If you are handwriting

names, rather than attempting Italics , the name is underlined.

Using this binomial system (2 names) it is easy to tell the

difference between similar species, e.g. the common domestic cat is

Felix catus , whereas a wild cat is Felix sylvestris , a lion is Felix

leonis and a lynx is Felix lynx .

Classification



Prokaryotes

The distinguishing features of the Prokaryotes are;

• Microscopic prokaryotic cells (2 - 5µ m long rather than 10-

100µ m)

• Lack of a nucleus (DNA in cytoplasm) and possibly plasmids

• Lack of membrane-bound organelles

• Presence of 70s ribosomes

• No cytoskeleton

• There are 2 main Phyla, Bacteria and Cyanobacteria

Protoctists

The distinguishing features of the Protoctists are;

• Eukaryotic cell structure

• Simple body form, either unicellular, filamentous (chains),

colonial (ball) or macroscopic (large and visible)

The Proctoctist’s kingdom tends to be full of organisms that do not

fit into any other Kingdom e.g. algae and yeast

There are 10 phyla in the

Protoctist kingdom

The characteristics of the different Kingdoms



The distinguishing features of the Fungi are;

• Heterotrophic nutrition (get food from eating, unlike plants)

• Made of a network of Hyphae, which form a 3D structure called

a Mycelium. (look up Module 1 notes)

• Call walls containing chitin

Plants

The distinguishing features of the Plants are;

• Multicellular with eukaryotic structure

• Cell walls containing cellulose

• Complex body form

• Photoautotrophic nutrition (make food themselves through P/S)

• Presence of photosynthetic cells with chloroplasts containing

chlorophyll and other photosynthetic accessory pigments• 2 stages in the life cycle: a diploid spore-producing stage and a

haploid gamete-producing stage.

The Plant kingdom is divided into 2 major sub kingdoms; Flowering

and Non-flowering plants. Non-flowering plants (such as ferns)

produce either spores inside capsules or cones (such as conifers)

Flowering plants produce flowers and seeds, which develop inside

fruit. There are 2 major subclasses of flowering plants;monocotyledons and dicotyledons.

Notice the Hyphae in the microscope

picture of a fungus to the left

Fungi



The distinguishing features of the Animals are;

• Multicellular with eukaryotic cell structure

• Cells without cell walls

• Heterotrophic nutrition

• Highly organised organs and tissues including nervous co-

ordination

• The only haploid cells they have are gametes

There are 2 main subkingdoms in the Animal kingdom; Vertebrates

and Invertebrates. There are eight main phyla, 7 of which are

invertebrates

Exceptions

There are 2 main exceptions, which do not fit in the classification

system

1. Viruses, which are arguably not alive

2. Sponges, which are over 570 million years old. Sponges consist of

a number of different cell types, similar to the unicellular

protoctisis. Some of the cells are specialised for feeding, some

for water circulation and some for reproduction. All the cells are

enclosed in a cytoskeleton, which does not fit with any of the

other classification groups.

Some members of the Animal kingdom

Animals

Classification - The Kingdoms

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