5.07 The Kingdoms of Life

Our fishing trip yesterday was really fun! I cannot believe that our cruise will be over shortly! This is our last excursion before we wrap things up!

Let's see what's on the clipboard for today. Oh yes, the six kingdoms. I have heard from the folks at the BioVenture Travel Agency that you'll be taking a close look at each kingdom of organisms. I am to make sure you have a solid starting point and are at least familiar with their general characteristics. So that's on our agenda.

In this activity, you will: identify the six kingdoms of living things distinguish between organisms belonging to the six kingdoms: Eubacteria, Archaebacteria, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia The Honors student will: identify the groupings within the taxonomic classification system recognize the defining characteristics of each domain categorize organisms according to the kingdom and phylum to which they belong identify similarities and differences between taxonomic groups

Do you remember the first day you boarded? We were looking at the ship's map to figure out where you needed to go to find your cabin and other areas of the ship. The map of the ship is color-coded, and the main locations are labeled. For example, you knew that areas color-coded green are the exhibit areas, and you could see that the picture of the lifeboats was where you reported for the lifeboat drills during departure. The point is that the colors and symbols on the map helped you locate places more easily.

As you know, living things can be classified in many different ways. You've already learned that they can be placed into a group of organisms based on their similarities and differences: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species.

In this activity we'll look at the largest grouping of organisms, the kingdom. Most taxonomists group all organisms into one of six kingdoms. (Notice that the names are Latinized, much like the scientific name.)

Six Kingdoms of Organisms

• Archaebacteria
• Eubacteria
• Protista (Protists)
• Fungi (Funguses)
• Plantae (Plants)
• Animalia (Animals)

Explore the aquarium below and try to guess the kingdoms of the organisms that inhabit the tank. (Roll your mouse over the numbers.)

Text Version

How did you do? Before long you'll be a pro at how living things are classified.

Move on to the BioVenture tab to continue to explore the kingdoms of living things.