Classification

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 dont 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.

The characteristics of the different Kingdoms

Prokaryotes
The distinguishing features of the Prokaryotes are;

Microscopic prokaryotic cells (2 - 5 m long rather than 10 100 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 Proctoctists 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

Fungi 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

Notice the Hyphae in the microscope picture of a fungus to the left

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.

Animals 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 coordination 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

Some members of the Animal kingdom

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.