Greetings, friends of nature. Today I want to tell you which kingdoms of living nature and their representatives exist and rule on our land. They interested me in their rich diversity, since nature created all its diversity over many millions of years.
It turns out that this is not one kingdom, but several, and they cannot live without each other, because in nature everything is interconnected. Do you know the representatives of the kingdom of living nature?
How beautiful our earth is at any time of the year, where everything is so rationally arranged that all living organisms on it, to one degree or another, depend on each other.
Sometimes we don’t even think about it and don’t pay attention. I will try to tell you about what kingdoms of nature exist, what they are called and how many there are.
These tiny microorganisms - microbes and bacteria - exist everywhere you look. But they can only be seen under a microscope due to their small size. And so, looking into the microscope lens, you can find bacteria with different structures.
There are those in the form of a ball, and there are also straight bacteria - like a stick, some are curved, while others have bizarre shapes. Their variety is so rich that it would be difficult to list them all here.
Speaking about bacteria, all of them can be divided into:
- Useful, which are found in every living creature and help not only to properly digest food, but also protect against various diseases.
- Harmful, which cause various poisonings and disorders of the digestive system and other organs.
In addition, in this kingdom there are still bacteria and microbes, the first of which, as I said above, can be both useful and harmful. But microbes are only harmful.
This is how this kingdom of good and bad microorganisms works in brief.
Kingdom of Viruses
So, for example, the hepatitis virus can live in the human body without damaging liver cells for many years. IN currently known:
After reading this name of the kingdom, you probably thought about forest mushrooms? Of course, you thought correctly, but there are still a lot of mushrooms in the world, growing not only in the forest in the clearing, but also on the river and seabed.
More than 100 thousand species of mushrooms are known to our science today. It turns out that the most common yeast is . And the well-known forest mushrooms are edible and inedible.
Molds are also ubiquitous and can sometimes be difficult to get rid of.
They can be very harmful, as they lead to crop losses and diseases of people and animals. But among them there are also useful mushrooms, such as penicillium. Isn’t it a familiar name, apparently you guessed that the antibiotic penicillin is obtained from it.
Almost everyone who has their own personal plot grows currant or gooseberry bushes. And everyone strives to treat them against powdery mildew in the spring. This plant disease is caused by powdery mildew fungi.
Well, who doesn’t know this fabulous kingdom, which is so rich and diverse?
Their representatives make us happy both at home and on the street. Every spring they bloom and bloom various plants, giving you and me flowers that exude a delicate aroma.
There are about 400 thousand species of plants on our planet. The table below explains what species the plant kingdom is divided into.
And I would also add medicinal and poisonous plants to them. I hope you don't mind this?
This numerous kingdom plays a huge role on our earth, as it enriches the air with oxygen and provides food for many animals. And you and I grow their representatives in our dacha:
- fruits and berries,
- fruits and vegetables,
- flowers and roses,
- trees and shrubs.
Trees give us cool shade in hot weather, and warm our homes in cold weather. Without it, life on earth will cease to exist.
animal kingdom
Microscopic amoeba and huge blue whale, what do they have in common, you ask? One is big, and the other is very tiny. And yet they are in this one kingdom. And why? Yes, because they feed, reproduce and breathe on their own.
Approximately 2 million species in the animal kingdom live on our planet. Unicellular or multicellular living organisms, they all exist and evolve for more than one million years.
Representatives of all these 5 kingdoms live and prosper, mutually complementing each other.
It is impossible to imagine a predatory wolf grazing in a clearing and chewing grass. Or a curly-haired lamb hunting a long-eared hare. After all, this is impossible in nature. So all the kingdoms of the living world cannot exist without each other.
Living organisms, dying, are processed by bacteria. Viruses, killing the host, provide food for bacteria. The bacteria, in turn, provide food to the plants. Plants produce oxygen and feed animals. The circulation of living beings in nature is indisputable proof of their interconnection.
Take a look at all this diversity of the kingdoms of nature, which are presented here as a small but visual diagram, and everything will become clear to you.
I hope you enjoyed my short overview of the kingdoms of living nature and their representatives, and you learned a lot from it that was useful for yourself. Write about it in your comments, I will be interested to know about it. And that's all for today. Let me say goodbye to you and see you again.
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Initially, people shared everything wildlife on animals. This classification is reflected in the works of Aristotle. Even Carl Linnaeus is the founder modern classification species, living in the 18th century, still divided living organisms only into the plant and animal kingdoms.
In the middle of the 17th century they were opened single-celled organisms, initially they were distributed among two known kingdoms and only in the 19th century a separate kingdom was allocated for them - the Protists.
After the electron microscope appeared, it became possible to study the smallest organisms in detail. Scientists have found that some of them have a nucleus, while others do not, and it was proposed to divide all living organisms according to this characteristic.
Animal Kingdom
This kingdom includes multicellular heterotrophic organisms; they are distinguished by independent mobility and nutrition mainly by ingesting food. The cells of such organisms usually do not have a dense wall.
Kingdom of Mushrooms
Fungi are multicellular saprophytes, that is, organisms that feed by processing dead organic matter. They differ in that their activities do not leave excrement. Fungi reproduce by spores. The kingdom is divided into a subkingdom and a subkingdom of myxomycetes; scientists argue about whether the latter should be classified as the kingdom of Mushrooms.
Kingdom Bacteria
The kingdom of Bacteria includes single-celled organisms that do not have a full-fledged nucleus. There are autotrophic bacteria and . Bacteria are usually motile. Since bacteria do not have a nucleus, they are classified as a domain. All bacteria have a dense cell wall.
Kingdom Protists
Organisms whose cells have a nucleus are most often unicellular. Organisms fall into the kingdom of Protists according to the residual principle, that is, when they cannot be attributed to other kingdoms of organisms. Protists also include protists.
Kingdom of Viruses
Viruses are on the border between living and inanimate nature, these are non-cellular formations that represent a set complex molecules in a protein shell. Viruses can only reproduce while in a living cell of another organism.
Kingdom of the Chromists
A small number of organisms - some algae, several fungi-like organisms - have 2 nuclei in their cells. They were separated into a separate kingdom only in 1998.
Kingdom Archaea
The first archaea were found in geothermal springs
The simplest prenuclear single-celled organisms that were among the first to appear on Earth; they are adapted to live not in an oxygen atmosphere, but in a methane atmosphere, so they are found in extreme environments.
The name of the science of biology was given in 1802 by the French scientist Lamarck. In those days, it was still beginning its development. What does he study? modern biology?
Sections of biology and what they study
If we speak in in a general sense, biology studies the living world of the Earth. Depending on what modern biology studies specifically, it is divided into several sections:
- study of living organisms molecular level studies molecular biology;
- the branch of biology that studies living cells - cytology or cytogenetics;
- living organisms - morphology, physiology;
- ecology studies the biosphere at the level of populations and ecosystems;
- genes, hereditary variability - genetics;
- embryo development - embryology;
- evolutionary biology and paleobiology deal with the theory of evolution and ancient organisms;
- ethology studies animal behavior;
- general biology - processes common to the entire living world.
There are also many sciences involved in the study of certain taxa. What are these branches of biology and what do they study? Depending on which kingdoms of living organisms biology studies, it is divided into bacteriology, zoology, and mycology. Smaller taxonomic units are also studied by individual sciences, such as entomology, ornithology, and so on. If biology is the study of plants, then the science is called botany. Let's take a closer look.
What kingdoms of living organisms does biology study?
According to the current prevailing theory, the living world has complex structure and is divided into groups different sizes- taxa. The classification of the living world is carried out by taxonomy, which is part of biology. If you need an answer to the question of which kingdoms of living organisms biology studies, you need to turn to this science.
The largest taxon is an empire, and the living world consists of two empires - non-cellular (another name is viruses) and cellular.
From the name it is clear that members of the first taxon did not reach cellular level organizations. Viruses can reproduce only in the cells of another cellular organism - the host. so primitive that some scientists don't even consider them alive.
Cellular organisms are divided into several superkingdoms - eukaryotes (nuclear) and prokaryotes (prenuclear). The former have a formalized cell nucleus with a nuclear membrane, the latter do not have it. In turn, the superkingdoms are divided into kingdoms.
The kingdom of eukaryotes consists of three kingdoms of multicellular organisms - animals, plants and fungi, and one kingdom of unicellular organisms - protozoa. The kingdom of protozoa includes many diverse organisms with great differences. Sometimes scientists divide protozoa into several groups, depending on the type of food and other characteristics.
Prokaryotes are usually divided into the kingdoms of bacteria and archaea.
Currently, scientists are proposing a different division of living nature. Based on characteristics, genetic information and differences in cell structure, three domains are distinguished:
- archaea;
- real bacteria;
- eukaryotes, in turn divided into kingdoms.
What kingdoms of living organisms does biology study today:
Domain or kingdom of Archaea
Kingdom (domain) of bacteria or eubacteria
Prokaryotes are usually unicellular, but sometimes form colonies (cyanobacteria, actinomycetes). They do not have a membrane-enclosed nucleus and membrane organelles. contains an unnucleated nucleoid containing genetic information. The cell wall consists mainly of murein, although some bacteria lack it (mycoplasmas). Most bacteria are heterotrophs, that is, they feed organic substances. But there are also autotrophs, for example, those capable of photosynthesis - cyanobacteria, which are also called blue-green algae.
Some bacteria are beneficial - those contained in the intestinal microflora are involved in digestion; some are harmful (causative agents of infectious diseases). People have long been able to use bacteria for their own purposes: for food production, medicines, fertilizers and so on.
Kingdom of Protozoa
kingdom of mushrooms
plant kingdom
Eukaryotes; distinctive features- ability for unlimited growth, autotrophic type of nutrition (photosynthesis), sedentary lifestyle. Cell wall made of cellulose. Reproduction is sexual. Divided into subkingdoms of the lower and higher plants. Lower plants(algae), unlike higher ones (spores and seeds), do not have organs and tissues.
animal kingdom
Eukaryotic with a heterotrophic type of nutrition. Features: limited growth, ability to move. Cells form tissues; cell wall absent. Reproduction is sexual; in lower groups, alternation between sexual and asexual is possible. Animals have nervous system varying degrees of development.
Kingdoms of living organisms
Scientists have divided all living things on our planet into groups according to unifying related characteristics. The most large groups life on Earth is united into kingdoms. Let's see what kingdoms scientists have united into various shapes life.
Kingdom of bacteria (prokaryotes)
It combines microscopic (usually single-celled) organisms that do not have a nucleus in their cells. In addition to the bacteria themselves (staphylococci, vibrios, etc.), primitive unicellular algae are often included here - cyanea, or blue-green algae, which should not be confused with cyanea - the largest known jellyfish. Blue-green algae is one of the ancient forms life on Earth. They appeared, according to scientists, more than 2 billion years ago. They can only be called algae conditionally, due to the primitiveness of their structure.
Kingdom of protists (eukaryotes)
Unlike representatives of the kingdom of bacteria, the kingdom of protists is represented by microorganisms that have a nucleus in their cells. The most famous representatives This kingdom includes diatoms (diatomaceous algae), peridinea and euglenaceae, as well as other flagellated algae.
Single-celled diatoms are among the most common representatives of the protist kingdom. There are more than 10 thousand varieties, including most of- sea inhabitants. Under the lens of a conventional microscope, diatoms look like circles, ovals, stars, etc. However, if you look at the diatom under a more powerful microscope, you can see that its gelatinous body rests in a tiny, durable mesh shell. This animal's exoskeleton is built from silica. Diatoms cannot move independently and are transported by water currents. But among the procysts there are also animals capable of independent movement, for example, the single-celled flagellated alga Euglena.
Euglenaceae number about 60 species in their ranks. They live only in fresh waters.
Next in systematic classification living organisms, more complex ones are distinguished - multicellular creatures, which are determined to higher forms life. Long-term evolutionary development single-celled organisms moved to a more complex level of organization, giving rise to plants, fungi and animals.
plant kingdom
This kingdom unites multicellular organisms, unable to move independently and using energy sun rays for conversion inorganic substances into organic (photosynthesis). I think there is no need to give examples of representatives of this kingdom - these are the most different kinds plants of water and land with a more complex organization than unicellular ones.
kingdom of mushrooms
It is not by chance that mushrooms are allocated to a separate kingdom. These living organisms are neither animals nor plants and do not fall under classification characteristics representatives of these kingdoms. Fungi include many spore-bearing organisms, molds, and mushrooms themselves (poisonous and edible).
animal kingdom
The most numerous and representative kingdom. This includes all organisms that feed on prepared organic compounds(plants or other animals, including their remains). Animals include single-celled living organisms (amoebas, ciliates) and huge mammals (whales, elephants, fish, giant jellyfish, etc.)
The sharks that interest us, and even you and me, are also included in this kingdom.
The classification of animals is presented schematically
in this image (220 kB, will open on a separate page).
The image can be enlarged 2-3 times without losing quality.