Kingdoms

• There are a great variety of organisms which co-inhabit the earth
• These organisms occur in many different forms and sizes
• Some of them are invisible to the naked eye
• These different species can live in a variety of different habitats
• Classification


  Grouping and sorting of things according to similarities and differences
• Life forms


  Grouped as a result of classification
• Taxonomy


  The science of naming and classifying a wide range of living things
• Living things were classified into

  • Plants
  • Animals
• The more scientists came to know about life the more advanced the classification systems become
• Five Kingdom system


  • Developed by Robert H. Whittaker in 1909
  • All living organisms were placed into 5 kingdoms based on certain characteristics
• Eukaryotes


  Organisms that possess a true nucleus surrounded by a nuclear membrane
• Prokaryotes


  Organisms with nuclear material not enclosed by membranes
• Autotrophic organisms


  Can manufacture their own food by photosynthesis
• Heterotrophic organisms


  Unable to manufacture their own food
• Saprophytes


  Organisms that feed on dead and decaying matter
• Unicellular organisms


  Made up of one cell only
• Multicellular organisms


  Made up of many cells
• The Five Kingdom classification system

  • Monera
  • Protista
  • Fungi
  • Plantae
  • Animalia
• Taxonomy


  The branch of biology that classifies all living things
• Taxonomy was developed by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, who lived during the 18th Century, and his system of classification is still used today
• Linnaeus and other scientists used Latin because it was a dead language, meaning nobody spoke it anymore, hence it is a neutral language, and the scientific name can be used to avoid confusion with common names
• Binomial nomenclature


  The system of giving each type of organism a genus and species name
• Taxonomic hierarchy


  A classification system with seven ranks from general to specific: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species
• Genus and species are always typed in italics and underlined when handwritten
• The Genus name will be written with a capital letter while the species name is written with a small letter
• Remember this sentence: "King Philip Came Over For Good Spaghett"
• Two types of taxonomic keys

  • Pictorial
  • Verbal
• Pictorial keys


  Have illustrations in the form of pictures, photographs or a combination, organisms are identified by comparing them to the illustrations
• Verbal keys


  Clues are in the form of statements or questions of characteristics, by answering the questions or following the statements and looking at the specimen the correct taxon can be identified