Life on Earth

Back in 1735 when Carl Linnaeus introduced his revolutionary system of classifying life he recognised just 2 Kingdoms, the Plants and the Animals. Today it is a bit more complicated and most taxonomists now recognise 6 Kingdoms. You would be able to see most of them in this photograph taken in a local wood  if only you were able to look closely enough.


Laid out before you:

Kingdom Archaeabacteria. There aren't any these single celled organisms present as they live in extreme environments such as hot boiling water and thermal vents under conditions with no oxygen or highly acid environments.

Kingdom Eubacteria. Most of the bacteria are placed in this kingdom. There are probably billions of them in this photograph, but they are far too small to see with our puny naked eyes.

Kingdom Protoctista. All microscopic organisms that are not bacteria, not animals, not plants and not fungi. They include the slime moulds and algae.

Kingdom Fungi. There is a yellow mushroom in view, the fruiting body of a fungus.

Kingdom Plantae. Grasses, mosses and a tree (branch)  are all represented in the photograph.

Kingdom Animal. There must lots of animals present, but most are well hidden, or too small to see at this scale. They are, however, represented by the ape behind the camera!

To conclude a very complicated story, the grey-green lichen on the branch  is a compound organism, made up of organisms from 2 kingdoms, an alga (Protoctista) and a fungi living in symbiotic harmony.