(TERMINARRRRRRRRR) The clasification of living things & the microorganisms
THE CLASIFICATION OF LIVING THINGS
THE FIVE KINDOMS
The life things are divided into five great kindoms: bacteria, protoctists, fungi, plants and animals.
BACTERIA
Bacteria are the simplest and the smallest organisms. They’re composed of prokaryotic cells, and they’re unicellular. They can perform autotrophic or heterotrophic nutrition. They’re microscopic. Some of them have got a structure called flagellum, that allows them to move. Some bateria are dangerous for the humans because they can cause some diseases, but some of them can be beneficious because they help us to make the digestion
PROTOCTISTS
Protoctists are more complex organisms. They are composed of eukaryoric cells, and there are two types of protoctists: protozoa and algae
PROTOZOA
Protozoa are composed of animal cells. They are unicellular, and they’re heterotrophic. They live in wetlands, but some of them are parasites. Some protozoa can cause some diseases, as malaria.
ALGAE
Algae are composed of plant cells. They’re autotrophic. We can found them under the water. The most of them are unicellular, but a small group are multicellular. Algae are used for food and cosmetics.
FUNGI
Fungi are composed of eukaryotic animal cells, and they are heterotrophic. Some of them are unicellular, but also another organisms are multicellular. There are three types: yeasts, moulds and mushrooms.
YEASTS
Yeasts are unicellular organisms. We use them in the cooking industry
MOULDS
Moulds are pluricellular organisms. They can cause diseases as the athlete’s foot. Also some of them grow at spoiled food (for example: bread or fruit)
MUSHROOMS
Mushrooms are multicellular organisms. We use them for cooking, but some of them are poisonus.
PLANTS
Plants are composed of eukaryotic plant cells. They’re multicellular organisms, and they’re autotrophic. Plants can reproduce asexually (with spores) and sexually (with flowers). There are some types of plants: as hepaticae, mosses, ferns and spermatophytes.
ANIMALS
Animals are composed of eukaryotic animal cells. They’re multicellular, and they perform heterotrophic nutrition. Animals split into two groups: vertebrates and invertebrates.
VERTEBRATES
Vertebrates have got a backbone. There are five types of vertebrates: amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds and mammals. Humans are mammals.
INVERTEBRATES
Invertebrates haven’t got a backbone, but some of them have got an exoskeleton. There are many groups of invertebrates: artrhopods, annelids, molluscs, cnidarians...
TAXONOMY
The taxonomy is the science that studies how to classificate the life things. Each type of living things is called species. A species is a group of individuals that have many common characteristics and can reproduce and have fertile offspring. A group of species is a genus. A group of genuses is called family, which is grouped into orders. Orders group into classes, and classes into phyliums. Finnaly, kindoms are divided into phyliums.
HOW TO SAY THE NAME OF A SPECIES
To name species we use the binomial nomenclature, invented by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. Each species has a name with two latin words. The first is the genus, and the second is an specific characterisitic of the species.
For example, ‘Canis familiaris’ is the scientific name of a dog. ‘Canis’ is the genus, and ‘familiaris’ means family in latin, because dogs are members of our family