2. Los cinco reinos

BIOGEOSPHERE Bilingual Biology and Geology I.E.S. "J.S.Elcano (Sanlúcar Bda.)

Unit 6: The diversity of life 1 2 3

2. The five kingdoms of living beings

The largest taxonomic rank is the kingdom.

There are five kingdoms: Monera, Protoctist, Fungi, Plants (or Plantae) and Animals (or Animalia). Living beings are included in one of them following the criteria that are summarised in this table:

KINGDOM		MONERA	PROTOCTIST	FUNGI	PLANTS	ANIMALS
Number of cells		Unicellular	Unicellular and Multicellular	Unicellular and Multicellular	Multicellular	Multicellular
Type of cells		Prokaryotic	Eukaryotic	Eukaryotic	Eukaryotic	Eukaryotic
Level of organization		Cellular	Cellular and multicellular (without real tissues)	Cellular and multicellular (without real tissues)	Multicellular (with real tissues and organs)	Multicellular (with real tissues, organs and systems)
Vital functions	Nutrition	Autotrophic and Heterotrophic	Autotrophic and Heterotrophic	Heterotrophic	Autotrophic (Photosynthesis)	Heterotrophic
	Relation	Very Simplex	Simplex	Simplex	Complex	Very complex
	Reproduction	Asexual	Asexual and Sexual	Asexual and Sexual	Asexual and Sexual	Sexual
EXAMPLES		Bacteria	Protozoa Algae	Mushrooms Moulds Yeasts	Mosses Trees Grass	Insects Amphibians Mammals

The philogenetic tree is the way to represent graphically the evolutionary relationship between living beings:

Animación: The five kingdoms of living beings (Tutorvista)

READING ACTIVITIES

After reading the text, copy and answer the following questions into your notebook:

Remember: you must make complete sentences.

2.1. A scientist has to classify five unknown species. He has put all

the information he has about them in the next table.

Look at the table and try to help to the scientist.

	Species
	1	2	3	4	5
With prokaryotic cells	-	-	-	+	-
With eukaryotic cells	+	+	+	-	+
Unicellular	-	+	-	+	-
Multicellular	+	-	+	-	+
With real tissues	+	-	-	-	+
Without real tissues	-	-	+	-	-
Autotroph	-	-	+	+	+
Heterotroph	+	+	-	-	-