The Kingdom of life

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The Kingdom of life
Biologists undertake studies on living organisms in their ecosystems and classify them based on different features and the study is referred to as taxonomy. They hierarchically group the living organisms into different taxa from species, genera, families, orders, classes, phyla and kingdoms. For instance, the human taxon is classified hierarchically as follows. The species is sapiens, the genus is Homo, the family is hoinoidea, the order is primates, the class is mammalian, the sub phylum is vertebrata, the phylum is dochordata and finally the kingdom is animalia (Margulis and Chapman 8). The long held perception of two kingdoms of plants and animals was discarded in the mid eighteenth century on discovery of the new Protista kingdom (Blackwell 269). This was followed by the realization of the fact that certain (Monera) bacteria were different from plants and animals. There emerged a further recognition of fungi owing to further knowledge in biochemical and electron microscopic techniques (Hagen 68).
Whittaker developed the five kingdoms consisted of Proticista, Animalia, Fungi, Plantae and Monera in the mid eighteenth century and it has been widely adopted in schools (Davis 332). Teaching about the kingdoms either indicates that there are five kingdoms named above or that there are three domains namely Archea, Bacteria and Eukarya (Blackwell 269). Using the domain system requires that students understand that prokaryotes are divided into two kingdoms namely Archeabacteria and Eubacteria whereas in the five kingdom system all prokaryotes are merged into one kingdom namely Monera (Davis 332). The three-domain system implies that there are six kingdoms of life.
The six kingdoms include archaebacteria, eubacteria, proticists, animals, plants and fungi. Archeabacteria are a form of bacteria and its cells are called prokaryotes. The organisms are single celled decomposers and reproduce asexually. They live in environments that are hot highly acidic and without oxygen (Cavalier-Smith 1252). The Eubacteri kingdom consists of single celled organism and some are able to make their own food while others are not. Some are harmful such as streptococci and others are useful in making yogurt. Fungi have many cells and they feed on other organisms. Protists have many cells and some are able to make their own food while others are not (Blackwell and Powell 483). Animals have many cells and obtain energy from food. Plants are multicellular and they are abl...