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Diversity In Living Organisms

What you will learn

  • Classification helps us in exploring the diversity of life forms.

  • The major characteristics considered for classifying all organisms into five major kingdoms are:

    1. whether they are made of prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells

    2. whether the cells are living singly or organised into multi-cellular and thus complex organisms

    3. whether the cells have a cell-wall and whether they prepare their own food.

  • All living organisms are divided on the above bases into five kingdoms, namely Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia.

  • The classification of life forms is related to their evolution.

  • Plantae and Animalia are further divided into subdivisions on the basis of increasing complexity of body organisation.

  • Plants are divided into five groups: Thallophytes, Bryophytes, Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms and Angiosperms.

  • Animals are divided into ten groups: Porifera, Coelenterata, Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida, Arthropoda, Mollusca, Echinodermata, Protochordata and Vertebrata.

  • The binomial nomenclature makes for a uniform way of identification of the vast diversity of life around us.

  • The binomial nomenclature is made up of two words – a generic name and a specific name.