Traditionally, all living organisms are divided into three domains (superkingdoms) and six kingdoms, but some sources may indicate a different classification system.
Organisms are placed into kingdoms based on similarities or shared characteristics. Some of the traits that are used to define a kingdom include: cell type, nutrient acquisition, and reproduction. The two main types of cells are and cells.
Common methods of obtaining nutrients include absorption and ingestion. Types of reproduction include and.
Below is a list of the six kingdoms of life and a brief description of the organisms that comprise them.
Kingdom of Archaea
Archaea growing in Morning Glory Lake in Yellowstone National Park produce vibrant color
Initially, these prokaryotes with one were considered bacteria. They are found in and have a unique type of ribosomal RNA. The composition of these organisms allows them to live in very challenging environments, including hot springs and hydrothermal vents.
- Domain: Archaea;
- Organisms: methanogens, halophiles, thermophiles, psychrophiles;
- Cell type: prokaryotic;
- Metabolism: depending on the type - metabolism may require oxygen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, sulfur, sulfide;
- Method of nutrition: depending on the species - food consumption can be carried out by absorption, non-photosynthetic photophosphorylation or chemosynthesis;
- Reproduction: Asexual reproduction by binary fission, budding or fragmentation.
Note: in some cases, archaea are classified as belonging to the Kingdom of Bacteria, but most scientists classify them as a separate Kingdom. In fact, DNA and RNA data show that archaea and bacteria are so different that they cannot be combined into one Kingdom.
Kingdom Bacteria
Escherichia coli
These organisms are considered true bacteria and are classified under the domain of bacteria. Although most bacteria do not cause illness, some can cause serious illness. Under optimal conditions, they reproduce at an alarming rate. Most bacteria reproduce by binary fission.
- Domain: ;
- Organisms: bacteria, cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), actinobacteria;
- Cell type: prokaryotic;
- Metabolism: depending on the species - oxygen may be toxic, transportable or necessary for metabolism;
- Method of nutrition: depending on the type - food consumption can be carried out by absorption, photosynthesis or chemosynthesis;
- Reproduction: asexual.
Kingdom Protista
- Domain: Eukaryotes;
- Organisms: amoebas, green algae, brown algae, diatoms, euglena, slimy forms;
- Cell type: eukaryotic;
- Feeding mode: depending on the species - food consumption includes absorption, photosynthesis or ingestion;
- Reproduction: predominantly asexual. occurs in some species.
Kingdom Mushrooms
Includes both single-celled (yeast and mold) and multicellular (fungi) organisms. They are decomposers and obtain nutrients through absorption.
- Domain: Eukaryotes;
- Organisms: fungi, yeast, mold;
- Cell type: eukaryotic;
- Metabolism: Oxygen is necessary for metabolism;
- Nutrition method: absorption;
- Reproduction: sexual or asexual.
Plant Kingdom
They are extremely important for all life on Earth, since they release oxygen and provide other living organisms with shelter, food, etc. This diverse group contains vascular or avascular plants, flowering or non-flowering plants, and others.
- Domain: Eukaryotes;
- Organisms: mosses, angiosperms (flowering plants), gymnosperms, liverworts, ferns;
- Cell type: eukaryotic;
- Metabolism: Oxygen is necessary for metabolism;
- Nutrition method: photosynthesis;
- Reproduction: Organisms undergo alternating generations. The sexual phase (gametophyte) is replaced by the asexual phase (sporophyte).
Animal Kingdom
This Kingdom includes everyone. These multicellular eukaryotes depend on plants and other organisms for sustenance. Most animals live in aquatic environments and range from tiny tardigrades to extremely large blue whales.
- Domain: Eukaryotes;
- Organisms: mammals, amphibians, sponges, insects, worms;
- Cell type: eukaryotic;
- Metabolism: Oxygen is necessary for metabolism;
- Method of feeding: ingestion;
- Reproduction: Most animals reproduce sexually, but some animals reproduce asexually.
The living world of the Earth is very diverse. In it there are organisms that differ greatly from each other: simple and complex, small and large, plants and animals that live in the cold or only in the heat, and so on. Since ancient times, man has tried to systematize all this diversity, to classify similar living organisms into one group. In this group, he also divided organisms according to smaller, insignificant distinctive features.
A kingdom is one of the highest levels of classification of living organisms. The kingdoms are Animals, Plants, Fungi, Bacteria, Viruses. There are organisms that are difficult to unambiguously attribute to any one of these listed kingdoms.
Aristotle and his student Theophrastus wrote works in which plants and animals were systematized. In the 18th century, Carl Lineus studied the classification and names of species. He identified only two kingdoms - plants and animals. Although microorganisms were already known at that time, they were all classified as either plants or animals.
Only in the 20th century did scientists discover that some microorganisms do not have a cell nucleus. As a result, a separate kingdom of Bacteria was identified. It was also only in the 20th century that mushrooms were separated from plants into a separate kingdom.
Viruses do not even have a cellular structure, so this is also a separate kingdom.
Life on Earth arose about 3.5 billion years ago in the ocean. The first organisms had a very simple structure, like bacteria. They dominated the oceans for about one billion years. Then more complex and diverse unicellular and multicellular organisms appeared.
Biological systematics is a science that deals with the development of principles for the classification of all existing living organisms and the application of these principles to the construction of an integral system. Classification of living organisms implies their description and hierarchical placement in the system of organisms. According to one of these classifications, everything is divided into kingdoms.
Kingdoms of living nature - the highest taxonomic categories in The division of existing living nature into kingdoms is considered completely justified from the point of view of evolution. According to it, all organisms are divided into two superkingdoms (pre-nuclear and nuclear organisms), which include four kingdoms: crushed beans, plants, fungi and animals. Each kingdom is in turn divided into sub-kingdoms. Let's look at the main categories in more detail.
Non-nuclear and pre-nuclear organisms (prokaryotes) are organisms that do not have a formed cell nucleus. The genetic code has the form of a circular DNA chain and is present in the nucleotide without forming real chromosomes. Such organisms do not have a sexual process. Scientists include various bacteria, including blue-green algae, as prokaryotes.
The other three kingdoms of living nature are eukaryotes. The first of these is plants. The most important difference between plants and other organisms is their ability to feed autotrophically, that is, to synthesize certain organic substances from inorganic ones. Green plants carry out photosynthesis using the energy of sunlight. Thanks to photosynthesis, the gas composition of the atmosphere is maintained. Thus, plants are the main source of energy and food for all organisms on our planet.
The scheme is quite complicated. Initially, they are divided into lower and higher plants. The body of lower plants is not divided into root, stem and leaf. Lower plants include algae, namely chrysophytes, siliceous, yellow-green, brown, red, euglenophytes, green and other algae. Unlike the body of higher plants, they are divided into the above specialized organs (leaf, stem, root). This includes bryophytes, ferns, and angiosperms, within which separate classes are distinguished.
Mushrooms are a kingdom of living nature that combines the characteristics of both animals and plants. Mushrooms, like plants, are immobile; they are characterized by apical growth and the presence of fungi. From animals, fungi inherited a heterotrophic type of metabolism, the formation of urea and other features. Fungi reproduce vegetatively, sexually and asexually. They mineralize plant remains in the soil. Some species can cause diseases in plants and animals. A large number have been found used today to obtain antibiotics, vitamins, and hormones. It's no secret that many mushrooms are edible. Within this kingdom of life there are three types: true fungi, oomycetes and myxomycetes.
Representatives of the animal kingdom are characterized by some common properties with plants, including, for example, metabolism and cellular structure. Such similarities are due to the same origin. However, the main distinguishing feature is the nutrition. Animals are heterotrophs, that is, they feed on ready-made organic compounds, due to their inability to synthesize them from inorganic substances. As a rule, animals are actively mobile. According to rough estimates, there are approximately two million species of animals. Like other kingdoms of living nature, animals are divided into subkingdoms, phyla and species. Thus, there are unicellular and multicellular animals, divided into dozens of types and species. People also belong to one of these types.
The nature of our planet is rich and diverse. To systematize it, all living organisms were conditionally divided into kingdoms. In this article you will learn how many kingdoms of living nature exist on Earth, and get acquainted with the distinctive features of all living things.
Initially, all living organisms are divided into two empires: cellular (composed of cells) and extracellular (viruses).
Viruses cannot synthesize proteins on their own. It is produced when cells become infected.
Rice. 1. Viruses.
Organisms made up of cells are divided into four kingdoms:
- Bacteria (protozoa) - have a fairly simple structure, they have no organelles, no nuclear membrane, DNA molecules are located in the cytoplasm. Such organisms can feed through the cell surface or produce nutrients independently (blue-green algae). Bacteria can be both beneficial and harmful. They are used for fermenting vegetables and preparing fermented milk products. But there are also pathogenic bacteria that are dangerous to human life and health.
- Plants - A distinctive feature of a plant cell is plastids, one of which is chloroplasts. Photosynthesis occurs in them - the process of formation of organic nutrients from inorganic substances (water, carbon dioxide) under the influence of solar energy.
All plants “make their own food” (autotrophs). The main ingredients are water, air and sun.
The structure of a plant cell is more complex than that of bacteria. There is a dense shell that contains cellulose. Inside the cytoplasm there are organelles, each of which performs specific functions (protein synthesis, accumulation of nutrients, etc.).
Another distinctive feature of a plant cell is the presence of a vacuole - a container where nutrients or unnecessary metabolic products are stored.
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- Mushrooms - the kingdom of living nature, which combines the characteristics of plants and animals. Similarity with a plant organism is the presence of a dense cell wall, which is formed from chitin. Fungi do not have plastids, so they cannot “cook their own food” themselves. Just like animals, they are heterotrophs. Fungi feed on ready-made nutrients by absorption from the environment. The special structure of a mushroom cell is the hypha, which forms entire plexuses of threads called mycelium.
- Animals - are heterotrophs. Animal cells do not have a dense membrane, so some of them can contract to form muscle tissue. This feature makes it possible to actively move, and the musculoskeletal system appears. Animal cells have centrioles located near the nucleus, which play an important role during the cell division process.
Rice. 2. Kingdoms of living nature.
Distinctive features of wildlife
The distinctive features of the kingdoms of living nature include:
- the presence of organic substances in cells (proteins, fats, carbohydrates, nucleic acids);
- the structural and functional unit is the cell;
- metabolism, i.e. a set of transformations, chemical reactions inside the body during breathing and nutrition;
- response to environmental influences or irritability;
- reproduction - reproduction of similar individuals;
- ability to adapt to environmental conditions;
- the ability to evolve, which gives such diversity to all living things;
- growth and development of the body.
Rice. 3. Signs of wildlife.
What have we learned?
Living nature is divided into four kingdoms: bacteria, plants, fungi and animals. Viruses are considered a separate kingdom, since they do not have a cellular structure. Every living thing on the planet has its own distinctive characteristics. These include breathing, reproduction, nutrition, growth and development, without them the normal functioning of the body is impossible. Using this material, you can quickly and easily restore knowledge for 5th grade biology and prepare for any test on the topic.
Test on the topic
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Question 1. How do plants differ from animals?
Question 2. What signs are characteristic of living organisms?
Living organisms grow, eat, breathe, develop, reproduce, have irritability, and release products of their vital activity (metabolism and energy) into their environment. All living organisms are made up of cells (except viruses).
Question 1. What kingdoms of living organisms do you know?
There are four kingdoms: Bacteria, Fungi, Plants and Animals.
Question 2. What features distinguish living organisms from inanimate objects?
Living organisms differ from inanimate objects in the following features: growth, nutrition, respiration, development, reproduction, irritability, excretion, metabolism and energy, mobility. Inanimate objects do not have such features.
Question 3. What is the importance of the ability of organisms to reproduce for the existence of life on Earth?
If reproduction stops at any stage of organisms, all living things will gradually disappear. This speaks about the interconnection of living organisms. Reproduction carries out the transmission of hereditary information and the continuity of generations. Reproduction allows a population to exist, to continue its species.
Think
Consider Figure 9. What phenomenon is depicted in it and why is it called the “power circuit”? Make your own food chain typical of living organisms living in your area.
This figure depicts the "power circuit" phenomenon. It really looks like a chain of certain links that successively replace each other. Examples:
Sun →grass →hare →wolf;
Sun → tree foliage → caterpillar → bird (tit, oriole) → hawk or falcon;
Spruce → squirrel → marten;
Sun →grass →caterpillar →mouse →viper →hedgehog →fox.
Tasks. Outline your paragraph.
Paragraph outline
§3. Diversity of wildlife. Kingdoms of living organisms. Distinctive features of living things.
Paragraph outline:
1. Kingdoms of living organisms;
2. Differences between living organisms and inanimate objects;
3. Main features of living organisms;
3.1. Cellular structure;
3.2. Chemical composition;
3.3. Metabolism;
3.4. Irritability;
3.6. Development;
