How does the Classification system distinguish between organisms?

Kingdoms

The first division of living things in the classification system is to put them into one of five kingdoms.

The five kingdoms are:

animals (all multicellular animals)

plants (all green plants)

fungi (moulds, mushrooms, yeast)

protists (Amoeba, Chlorella and Plasmodium)

prokaryotes (bacteria, blue-green algae)

Further divisions

Living things can then be ranked according to:

phylum

class

order

family

genus

species

Phylum follows Kingdoms and has many different organisms, including three examples below:

Chordata, which have backbones

Arthropod, which have jointed legs and an exoskeleton

Annelids, which are segmented worms

Class is an additional sub-division, which for example, results in the Chordata phylum being divided into:

Mammals

Birds

Amphibians

Fish

Reptiles

Order follows class and as an example, mammals can be further sub-divide into a variety of different groups such as:

Carnivores

Primates

Orders are broken down into families. Here are a few examples of which carnivores can be divided into:

Canidae - dogs

Felidae - cats

Genus, the Felidae family can be further sub-divided into four genus examples:

Acinonyx - cheetah

Panthera - lion and tiger

Neofelis - clouded leopard

Felis - domestic cats

Species is the final classification stage, and the genus Panthera can be divided into:

Panthera leo (lion)

Panthera tigris (tiger)

As an example, the complete breakdown of the classification of lions:

kingdom - animal

phylum - vertebrate

class - mammal

order - carnivorous

family - cat

genus - big cat

species - lion

There are many ways to remember this order, for example using the mnemonic:

Living organisms are classified into groups depending on their structure and characteristics. This system was developed in the eighteenth century by Carl Linnaeus.