The five kingdoms of nature

What are Kingdoms of nature:

The kingdoms of nature are the way in which living beings are classified according to their characteristics .Current science defines five kingdoms of living beings, being them the animal kingdoms, plantae, fungi, protista and monera .

The classification of the five kingdoms of nature that is most accepted today belongs to the microbiologist Carl Woese (1928-2012), who in 1977 introduced the monetary kingdom as the fifth kingdom.

Thanks to advances in molecular genetics, this microbiologist managed to differentiate prokaryotic beings from the rest, constituting the monetary kingdom.Prokaryotes differ from eukaryotes by having cells without a nucleus and having a simpler DNA.

The five kingdoms and their characteristics

The criteria of the five kingdoms of nature or beings alive of the microbiologist Carl Woese, formulated in 1977, is the most accepted classification and is composed of the kingdoms: animal, plantae , fungi, protista and monera.

The five kingdoms of nature are grouped according to the characteristics they share according to:

• Cellular organization: unicellular or multicellular.
• Cell: eukaryotic or prokaryotic.
• Reproduction: sexual, asexual or spore.
• Nutrition: heterotrophic or autotrophic.
• Locomotion: autonomous or immobile.
• Breathing: aerobic or anaerobic.
• Other unique characteristics of each kingdom.

Animal kingdom

The kingdom The animal is composed of multicellular, eukaryotic, heterotrophic, aerobic organisms that reproduce sexually and move autonomously.

The animal kingdom is classified into two large groups: vertebrates, which are subdivided into fish, amphibians, reptiles , birds and mammals, and invertebrates, which include insects, molluscs and worms.

Kingdom plantae

The kingdom plantae is composed of multicellular, eukaryotic, autotrophic, anaerobic, immobile organisms, what I will be They produce sexually or asexually.Together with the animal kingdom, they belong to the first two classification groups of living beings formulated by Aristotle in 350 BC.

Plants are the only beings (a exception of some unicellular algae of the protist kingdom) that are autotrophic thanks to the generation of their own food through photosynthesis.

Fungi kingdom

They belong to the fungi kingdom, or kingdom of fungi, multicellular, eukaryotic, heterotrophic, aerobic and immobile organisms that reproduce through spores sexually or asexually.

The fungi kingdom was considered within the classification of kingdoms of nature in 1969 by the American ecologist Robert H.Whittaker (1920-1980).

Thanks to the electric microscope, Whittaker was able to distinguish and propose classification criteria according to cell type (prokaryotic and eukaryotic) and level of organization (unicellular and multicellular) In addition, he suggested including criteria according to type of nutrition (autotrophic and heterotrophic) and type of reproduction (sexual and asexual).

Protist kingdom

The protist kingdom is made up of all the organisms that are not classified in any of the other kingdoms identified.They can be both unicellular and multicellular, aerobic or anaerobic, autotrophic or heterotrophic organisms, of sexual or asexual reproduction.

They are defined as the kingdom of the first eukaryotic forms of life and belong to them protozoa and algae.

The protist kingdom was considered a kingdom in 1866 by the German naturalist Erndt Haeckel (1834-1919), although in his proposal the kingdom included all unicellular organisms.

Monetary or prokaryotic kingdom

In the monetary kingdom are all unicellular organisms, prokaryotes.They are the only beings whose cells have no defined nucleus and contain the simplest genetic material of nature.

They are microscopic beings defined by Ernst Haeckel in 1 866 as the new protist kingdom that included the monetary kingdom.Then, the biologist Herbert Copeland (1902-1968) would include bacteria to form the monetary kingdom with all prokaryotic organisms.Examples of this kingdom we have the bacteria Clamydia and Escherichia coli .