Classification

You will remember from your Key Stage 3 studies that species with similar characteristics are put into groups, and that this is called classification. Remind yourself of the basics of classification by looking here.

Kingdoms

The first rank in this system is called a kingdom. There are five kingdoms, based upon what an organism's cells are like:

1. animals (all multicellular animals)
2. plants (all green plants)
3. fungi (moulds, mushrooms, yeast)
4. prokaryotes (bacteria, blue-green algae)
5. protoctists (Amoeba, Paramecium)

Further divisions

There are several further ranks before we reach a particular species. In order, these are:

• kingdom
• phylum
• class
• order
• family
• genus
• species

For example, lions have the following classification:

• kingdom - animal
• phylum - vertebrate
• class - mammal
• order - carniverous
• family - cat
• genus - big cat
• species - lion

One way to remember this is by using a daft sentence like this one:

"Kevin plays clarinet or flute – grotty sound!"