Objective

This topic gives an overview of; 

• Classification of Living Organisms
• Basis of Classification
• Classification and Evolution
• Hierarchy of Classification Groups
• Monera
• Protista
• Plantae
• Animalia

Classification of Living Organisms

Each organism is different from all others to a lesser or greater extent. Obviously, we and our friends have a lot in common when we compare ourselves with a monkey. But suppose we were to add a cow to the comparison? We would then think that the monkey has a lot more in common with us than with the cow.

Think of all the different forms in which life occurs on earth. On one hand we have microscopic bacteria of a few micrometre in size. While on the other hand we have blue whale and red wood trees of california of approximate sizes of 30 metres and 100 metres repectively. Some pine trees live for thousands of years while insects like mosquitoes die within a few days. Life also ranges from colourless or even transparent worms to brightly coloured birds and flowers.

 This bewildering variety of life around us has evolved on the earth over millions of years. However, we do not have more than a tiny fraction of this time to try and understand all these living organisms, so we cannot look at them one by one. Instead, we look for similarities among the organisms, which will allow us to put them into different
classes and then study different classes or groups as a whole.

In order to make relevant groups to study the variety of life forms, we need to decide which characteristics decide more
fundamental differences among organisms. This would create the main broad groups of organisms. Within these groups, smaller subgroups will be decided by less important characteristics.

Basis of Classification

Attempts at classifying living things into groups have been made since time immemorial. Greek thinker Aristotle classified animals according to whether they lived on land, in water or in the air. This is a very simple way of looking at life, but misleading too. For example, animals that live in the sea include corals, whales, octopuses, starfish and sharks. We can immediately see that these are very different from each other in numerous ways. In fact, their habitat is the only point they share in common. This is not an appropriate way of making groups of organisms to study and think about.

We therefore need to decide which characteristics to be used as the basis for making the broadest divisions. Then we will have to pick the next set of characteristics for making sub-groups within these divisions. This process of classification within each group can then continue using new characteristics each time.

Before we go on, we need to think about what is meant by 'characteristics'. When we are trying to classify a diverse group of organisms, we need to find ways in which some of them are similar enough to be thought of together. These ways,in fact, are details of appearance or behaviour, in other words, form and function.

What we mean by a characteristic is a particular form or a particular function. That most of us have five fingers on each hand is thus a characteristic. That we can run, but the banyan tree cannot, is also a characteristic.

Now, to understand how some characteristics are decided as being more fundamental than others, let us consider how a stone wall is built. The stones used will have different shapes and sizes. The stones at the top of the wall would not influence the choice of stones that come below them. On the other hand, the shapes and sizes of stones in the lowermost layer will decide the shape and size of the next layer and so on.

The stones in the lowermost layer are like the characteristics that decide the broadest divisions among living organisms. They are independent of any other characteristics in their effects on the form and function of the organism. The characteristics in the next level would be dependent on the previous one and would decide the variety in the next level. In this way, we can build up a whole hierarchy of mutually related characteristics to be used for classification.

Now-a-days, we look at many inter-related characteristics starting from the nature of the cell in order to classify all living organisms. 

•  A eukaryotic cell has membrane-bound organelles, including a nucleus, which allow cellular processes to be carried out efficiently in isolation from each other. Therefore, organisms which do not have a clearly demarcated nucleus and other organelles would need to have their biochemical pathways organised in very different ways. This would have an effect on every aspect of cell design. Further, nucleated cells would have the capacity to participate in making a multicellular organism because they can take up specialised functions. Therefore, this is a basic characteristic of classification.
• Do the cells occur singly or are they grouped together and do they live as an indivisible group? Cells that group together to form a single organism use the principle of division of labour. In such a body design, all cells would not be identical. Instead, groups of cells will carry out specialised functions. This makes a very basic distinction in the body designs of organisms. As a result, an Amoeba and a worm are very different in their body design.
• Do organisms produce their own food through the process of photosynthesis? Being able to produce one's own food versus having to get food from outside would make very different body designs necessary.
• Of the organisms that perform photosynthesis (plants), what is the level of organisation of their body?
• Of the animals, how does the individual's body develop and organise its different parts, and what are the specialised organs found for different functions?

We can see that, even in these few questions that we have asked, a hierarchy is developing. The characteristics of body design used for classification of plants will be very different from those important for classifying animals. This is because the basic designs are different, based on the need to make their own food (plants), or acquire it (animals). Therefore, these design features (having a skeleton, for example) are to be used to make sub-groups, rather than making broad groups.

Classification and Evolution

All living things are identified and categorised on the basis of their body design in form and function. Some characteristics are likely to make more wide-ranging changes in body design than others. There is a role of time in this as well. So, once a certain body design comes into existence, it will shape the effects of all other subsequent design changes, simply because it already exists. In other words, characteristics that came into existence earlier are likely to be more basic than characteristics that have come into existence later.

This means that the classification of life forms will be closely related to their evolution. What is evolution? Most life forms that we see today have arisen by an accumulation of changes in body design that allow the organism possessing them to survive better. Charles Darwin first described this idea of evolution in 1859 in his book, The Origin of Species

When we connect this idea of evolution to classification, we will find some groups of organisms which have ancient body designs that have not changed very much. We will also find other groups of organisms that have acquired their particular body designs relatively recently. Those in the first group are frequently referred to as "primitive" or "˜lower" organisms, while those in the second group are called "advanced" or "higher" organisms. In reality, these terms are not quite correct since they do not properly relate to the differences. All that we can say is that some are ˜older" organisms, while some are "younger" organisms. Since there is a possibility that complexity in design will increase over evolutionary time, it may not be wrong to say that older organisms are simpler, while younger organisms are more complex

The Hierarchy of Classification- Groups

Biologists, such as Ernst Haeckel (1894), Robert Whittaker (1959) and Carl Woese (1977) have tried to classify all living organisms into broad categories, called kingdoms. The classification Whittaker proposed has five kingdoms: Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia, and is widely used. These groups are formed on the basis of their cell structure, mode and source of nutrition and body organisation. The modification Woese introduced by dividing the Monera into Archaebacteria (or Archaea) and Eubacteria (or Bacteria) is also in use.

Further classification is done by naming the sub-groups at  various levels as given in the following scheme:

Kingdom
Phylum (for animals) / Division (for plants)
               Class
                       Order
                               Family
                                        Genus
                                                 Species

Thus, by separating organisms on the basis of a hierarchy of characteristics into smaller and smaller groups, we arrive at the basic unit of classification, which is a species. So what organisms can be said to belong to the same species? Broadly, a species includes all organisms that are similar enough to breed and perpetuate.

The important characteristics of the five kingdoms of Whittaker are as follows:

Monera

These organisms do not have a defined nucleus or organelles, nor do any of them show multi-cellular body designs. On the other hand, they show diversity based on many other characteristics. Some of them have cell walls while some do not. Of course, having or not having a cell wall has very different effects on body design here from having or not having a cell wall in multicellular organisms. The mode of nutrition of organisms in this group can be either by synthesising their own food (autotrophic) or getting it from the environment (heterotrophic). This group includes bacteria, blue-green algae or cyanobacteria, and mycoplasma. Some examples are shown.

Protista

This group includes many kinds of unicellular eukaryotic organisms. Some of these organisms use appendages, such as hair-like cilia or whip-like flagella for moving around. Their mode of nutrition can be autotrophic or heterotrophic. Examples are unicellular algae, diatoms and protozoans.

Fungi

These are heterotrophic eukaryotic organisms. They use decaying organic material as food and are therefore called saprophytes. Many of them have the capacity to become multicellular organisms at certain stages in their lives. They have cell-walls made of a tough complex sugar called chitin. Examples are yeast and mushrooms.

Some fungal species live in permanent mutually dependent relationships with bluegreen algae (or cyanobacteria). Such relationships are called symbiotic. These symbiobic life forms are called lichens. We have all seen lichens as the slow-growing large coloured patches on the bark of trees.

Plantae

These are multicellular eukaryotes with cell walls. They are autotrophs and use chlorophyll for photosynthesis. Thus, all plants are included in this group. Since plants and animals are most visible forms of the diversity of life around us.

Animalia

These include all organisms which are multicellular eukaryotes without cell walls. They are heterotrophs. 

Summary

• Classification helps us in exploring the diversity of life forms.
• The major characteristics considered for classifying all organisms into five major kingdoms are:
  • whether they are made of prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells
  • whether the cells are living singly or organised into multicellular and thus complex organisms
  • 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.