The Five Kingdoms

Just by looking around, you can see that it shares the Earth with many different types of organisms or living beings. Insects, cows, horses, trees, flowers, herbs, bacteria, fungi and fish are just some examples.

But what you may not know is that scientists believe that there are about 10 million species or groups of organisms that share similar characteristics, and that they can mate and reproduce.

Imagine how difficult it is to study all this type of species. To facilitate this work, which is an impossible task at best, scientists had to divide all life on Earth into different realms or large groups.

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Monerans

Like other organisms, moneras can be divided into two groups, according to the way they obtain their energy. It should be noted that the monetary cells have no nucleus.

• Autotrophs: are the organisms that obtain energy producing their own food.
• Heterrótrofos: are the organisms that can not produce their own food

Heterotrophs can feed on autotrophs or other heterotrophs. In any case, all heterotrophs depend on the autotrophs to feed themselves.

Scientists have shown that moneras appeared on Earth more than 3,500 million years ago, making it one of the first forms of terrestrial life in the world.

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Protists

In the Protista kingdom, most unicellular organisms with a nucleus are found. In addition to the nucleus, protists have special cellular structures that perform specific functions.

Some protists move like animals, but they have some plant characteristics. They are green and can use the energy of light to make their own food. The protists were the first living beings with a nucleus.

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Fungi

Fungi form the Fungi kingdom. Most of them are formed by many cells, that is, they are multicellular. Even if you have not noticed, the mushrooms are probably familiar. The mold that appears in the remains of the meals and in the form of black spots in the basements and bathrooms due to humidity, are fungi.

Until recently, fungi were considered plants. But there are some basic differences. The most obvious is that plants can get their food from solar energy and fungi can not. Mushrooms have to look for their energy from other sources.

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Plants

As you might expect, plants make up the kingdom Plantae. Most members of the plant kingdom are milticellular organismos. The members of this kingdom that are problably most familiar to you are flowering plants, trees, mosses, ferns, and some algae.

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Animals

Animals are the milticellular organisms that make up the kingdom Animalia. Animals have apecialized tissues, and most have organs and organ systems. Because animals cannot make their own food, they are heterotrophs. And, unlike plant cells, animal cells do not have cell walls.

The kingdoms of organisms that you probably know are plants and animals. Most plants, such as trees or moss, are multicellular. However, there are many plants that are unicellular. On the other hand, all animals, like the dog or the cat, are multicellular organisms.

Now, to verify if this information has been understood, we will answer the following:

• What are the five kingdoms of living things?
• List two important characteristics of each kingdom.
• How does an autotroph obtain its food? A heterotroph?