#1.3 Five kingdoms of living things


All living things are placed in one of five kingdoms. Each kingdoms has its own characteristics.

There is also another group that is of interest to biologists. They are the viruses. Biologists disagree about whether viruses should be classed as living things.

Most believe that they should not the only characteristics that they shared with living organisms is being able to reproduce.

The characteristics that Linnaeus used to divide all organisms into one of the five groups included:

• How many cells made up their bodies, if their cells were very simple or had complex parts

• If they can move on their own

• If they could make their own food, or had to eat other creatures to survive.