The 5+1=6 Kingdoms

In the beginning, all living thing were grouped into 2 kingdoms, mainly plants and animals. However, as time passed by, it became increasing difficult to group some living things into either the animal group or plant group. Hence, the 2 kingdoms were expanded into 5 kingdoms: Protista (single celled eukaryotes), fungi (fungus and related organisms), plantae (plants), animalia (animals), and last but not least, monera (prokaryotes).

[note* many biologists divide Monera into eubacteria and archeobacteria, hence, forming a total of 6 kingdoms instead] so here's another diagram for better understanding:

Kingdoms are then further divided into categories called phyla, each phylum is then divided into classes, each class divided into orders, each other into families, each family into genera and finally, each genus into species. Whew! That's alot! Okay, here's a picture to help you visualize better:

Protista: Eukaryotic one-celled living organisms distinct from multicellular plants and animals: protozoa, slime moulds, and eukaryotic algae- division Protista

fungi: The taxonomic kingdom including yeast, moulds, smuts, mushrooms, and toadstools; distinct from the green plants.

plantae: (botany) the taxonomic kingdom comprising all living or extinct plants

animalia: Taxonomic kingdom comprising all living or extinct animals

monera: Prokaryotic bacteria and blue-green algae and various primitive pathogens; because of lack of consensus on how to divide the organisms into phyla informal names are used for the major divisions

eubacteria: A large group of bacteria having rigid cell walls; motile types have flagella

archeobacteria: Considered ancient life forms that evolved separately from bacteria and blue-green algae

References:

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/studies/invertebrates/kingdoms.html

definations from wordweb

images:

http://www.ri.net/schools/Narragansett/NHS/PerEwebpage/6kingdoms.gif

whyfiles.org/022critters/images/kingdom.gif

wikipedia

To be continued...