Biological Classification

A mushroom grows from the ground, and it is not a plant. A bacterium has one cell without a nucleus, and an Amoeba has one cell with a nucleus. A lichen is two organisms that live as one. How do we put such different living things in order? In this chapter we follow the work of biologists from two kingdoms to five. We study the bacteria, the protists, the fungi, the plants and the animals one by one. At the end we meet the viruses, the viroids, the prions and the lichens, which do not fit in the five kingdoms. Python helps us to sort organisms and to look at data.

Part of Biology · High School (11–12) (chapter 2)

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Courses in This Path (4)

The Five Kingdoms and the Bacteria

For a long time every living thing was either a plant or an animal. Then biologists looked at the cells, and the old order broke. In this course we see why two kingdoms were not enough, how Whittaker built five, and what makes a bacterium different from every other cell. We study the shapes of bacteria, the archaebacteria, the cyanobacteria and the bacteria that help us or harm us.

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The Protists and the Fungi

Some single cells make their own food in sunlight, and some hunt for it. A mushroom looks like a plant and has no chlorophyll. In this course we study the single-celled eukaryotes of kingdom Protista and the threads of kingdom Fungi. We see how they feed, how they reproduce, how they make us ill and how they help us.

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