Do you know how many living beings there are on our planet? Did you know that due to the large number of living beings on Earth it is necessary to classify them in some way so that their identification and study is easier?
Well, yes, scientists say that there are around 10 million species of living beings on our planet, so to do your research work on the behavior, the characteristics of beings, as well as to understand the evolution of this enormous number of species, a general classification has been made into groups and subgroups taking into account certain similar and also different characteristics of these beings.
If you want to know how living beings are classified, keep reading this article where we are going to give you all the information you need on the subject and help you understand a little more about the world that surrounds us and the large number of species that exist in the.
First of all we must point out what is meant by “species” and we use this term to refer to a group of living beings that have similar physical characteristics and that in turn can reproduce among them, giving rise to offspring or children capable of continuing with the cycle of life.
Classify living things based on what they eat
This is a very basic classification that distinguishes living beings according to the type of food they have, and that is that we can find autotrophic food and heterotrophic food.
The first, autotroph, is that beings produce their own food, either by taking nutrients or substances from the earth and the air, or even by taking the energy produced by the Sun. This is the case of plants, algae, and a few bacteria.
On the other hand, heterotrophic feeding is the one that living beings need to feed on other living beings. This is the case of fungi, almost all microorganisms and animals.
Within this type of diet we can also classify living beings according to the type of food, hence we find herbivores (those that only feed on plants), carnivores (beings that only feed on other animals), omnivores (the beings that eat everything), the filter feeders (which feed on the remains of other organisms that are dissolved in the water), and finally we find the decomposers (these beings feed on the remains of other beings, transforming these into inorganic substances, which will be the food later on for the plants).
Classification of living beings general
This is the general classification of living beings considering that living beings are included in groups and subgroups depending on the similarities between their physical characteristics.
These classificatory groups are called kingdoms, and they are: the kingdom mineral, the kingdom Protista, the kingdom of fungi, the kingdom of plants, and the kingdom of animals.
The mineral kingdom. In the Moneta kingdom are unicellular living beings, with the type of prokaryotic cells (that is, they have the entire DNA distributed throughout the cell). Among them we find autotrophic and heterotrophic living beings. And within the Moneta kingdom we find the bacteria and cyanobacteria subgroups.
Some bacteria may be the cause of certain diseases, while others are harmless and may even be beneficial to the host, for example the bacteria found in the digestive system.
On the other hand, cyanobacteria are autotrophs; in order to feed they use photosynthesis. These are also called blue-green algae.
The kingdom Protista. In this case we can find unicellular or multicellular beings, but both are of the eukaryotic type. In this case, the beings that cannot be classified in any of the other kingdoms are collected, and it is subdivided into algae and protozoa.
Protozoa are unicellular organisms with heterotrophic feeding. Among them we include the vorticella, the paramecium or the amoeba. They are characterized by having parts in their body that move, allowing them to move around. Some protozoa are also characterized because they are the origin of some diseases, for example: the plasmodium, which causes malaria, and the trypanosomes, which cause sleeping sickness.
As for the algae, we find autotrophic beings, both unicellular and multicellular. They are characterized by being green, by not having organs and by not having specialized cells.
The mushroom kingdom. In this group we find both unicellular and multicellular beings of the eukaryotic type. Within this kingdom we classify beings into several subgroups: mushrooms, yeasts and molds. Although for a long time it was thought that fungi were plants, it has been known that they are not, since they do not have leaves or roots, they do not have chlorophyll, and they cannot feed through photosynthesis, instead they are heterotrophs, and finally, Because they reproduce by spores.
With mushrooms you have to be very careful, because some mushrooms can be eaten without a problem, but the vast majority is poisonous mushrooms, which can cause a lot of damage. Instead, others are also used in the food industry and in the pharmaceutical industry to create antibiotics.
The kingdom of plants. Plants are multicellular living beings, whose cells are eukaryotic.
Plants are characterized by being autotrophic; they feed through photosynthesis that they can carry out thanks to chlorophyll, which also gives the plant its characteristic green color. Plants feed on sunlight and carbon dioxide, and expel oxygen during the day, thanks to which they produce the oxygen that animals need to live. We can find plants with seeds and plants without seeds.
The animal kingdom. Finally we find the animal kingdom, which includes multicellular living beings, of the eukaryotic type, in addition, they are heterotrophs, they also have a good ability to move, as well as great sensitivity.
In the case of animals, when defining them, the physical characteristics (limbs, skin, eyes, etc.) will be pointed out, the type of heterotrophic feeding that characterizes them, the type of breathing (through the lungs, tracheas , gills, or skin), the type of reproduction (asexual or sexual), the way in which they are born (viviparous, oviparous) or even the type of metabolism (ectodermal (they adapt their body temperature to room temperature) or endothermic ( your body temperature is constant).
The animal kingdom has several subgroups. It is mainly subdivided into vertebrates (they have a bone skeleton) and invertebrates (they do not have a bone skeleton).
Within the vertebrates we can find the subgroups: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals (humans are in this subgroup).
Within the group of invertebrates we find the peripheral, the cnidarians (which in turn is subdivided into polyps and jellyfish); worms (subdivided into nematodes, flatworms, and annelids), mollusks (subdivided into gastropods, bivalves, cephalopods), arthropods (subdivided into insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and myriads), and finally the echinoderms.
This is how living beings are classified; we hope that the information is useful to you, and that you know how to identify the different living beings that surround us.
