Diversity of living beings
Biology / / July 04, 2021
The diversity of living beings or biodiversity, can be classified in several ways; the first logical division is established between the three main kingdoms: animals, vegetables and fungi. Although microorganisms can be separated as a third division among which are "protista" and "monera".
When viewed with the naked eye, there may be animals with characteristics similar to plants and plants with characteristics presumed to be animals.
What are the animal kingdoms?
The North American biologist Robert Whittaker, made the division of living beings into five kingdoms that we will present below:
- Monera
- Protista
- Plantae
- Fungi
- Animalia
Monera
When talking about the monera, it refers to a classification system that is already obsolete, and it was applied to unicellular and microscopic organisms lacking a nucleus.
Protista
This is the way to define microorganisms that are not classified as fungi, animals or plants.
Plantae
All plants fall into this classification, and plants have the characteristic of having chlorophyll. Plants are subclassified, in particular by type such as: their form, their way of obtaining nutrients, forms of reproduction. Seaweed and moss are included.
Fungi
Fungi, mold, zetas, this type of organisms can be found in this classification, they have the characteristic of not having chlorophyll and their reproduction is carried out by means of spores. Nutrients are absorbed via osmotrophy.
Animalia
This classification, also called metazoans, includes all animals, from microscopic insects even whales, and within their classification there may be a very high diversity of sub-classifications; a situation that it shares with the other classifications.
Today, these classifications have varied widely, and in biology texts, they may or may not be considered, the latter depending on the criteria or influence of the biologist or author.