Recent advances in biochemical and electron microscopic techniques, as well as in testing that investigates the genetic relatedness among species, have redefined previously established taxonomic relationships and have fortified support for a five-kingdom classification of living organisms. This alternative scheme is presented below and is used in the major biological articles. In it, the prokaryotic Monera continue to comprise the bacteria, although techniques in genetic homology have defined a new group of bacteria, the Archaebacteria, that some biologists believe may be as different from bacteria as bacteria are from other eukaryotic organisms. The eukaryotic kingdoms now include the Plantae, Animalia, Protista, and Fungi, or Mycota.

The protists are predominantly unicellular, microscopic, nonvascular organisms that do not generally form tissues. Exhibiting all modes of nutrition, protists are frequently motile organisms, primarily using flagella, cilia, or pseudopodia. The fungi, also nonvascular organisms, exhibit an osmotrophic type of heterotrophic nutrition. Although the mycelium may be complex, they also exhibit only simple tissue differentiation, if any at all. Their cell walls usually contain chitin, and they commonly release spores during reproduction. The plants are multicellular, multitissued, autotrophic organisms with cellulose-containing cell walls. The vascular plants possess roots, stems, leaves, and complex reproductive organs. Their life cycle shows an alternation of generations between haploid (gametophyte) and diploid (sporophyte) generations. The animals are multicellular, multitissued, heterotrophic organisms whose cells are not surrounded by cell walls. Animals generally are independently motile, which has led to the development of organ and tissue systems. The monerans, the only prokaryotic kingdom in this classification scheme, is principally made up of the bacteria. They are generally free-living unicellular organisms that reproduce by fission. Their genetic material is concentrated in a non-membrane-bound nuclear area. Motility in bacteria is by a flagellar structure that is different from the eukaryotic flagellum. Most bacteria have an envelope that contains a unique cell wall, peptidoglycan, the chemical nature of which imparts a special staining property that is taxonomically significant (i.e., gram-positive, gram-negative, acid-fast).

The use of “division” by botanists and “phylum” by zoologists for equivalent categories leads to a rather awkward situation in the Protista, a group of interest to both botanists and zoologists. As used below, the terms follow prevailing usage: phylum for the primarily animal-like protozoa and division for other protistan groups that are more plantlike and of interest primarily to botanists.

The discussion above shows the difficulty involved in classification. For example, one traditional classification of the Aschelminthes, presented below and in the article aschelminth, divides the phylum Aschelminthes into five classes: Rotifera, Gastrotricha, Kinorhyncha, Nematoda, and Nematomorpha. An alternative classification elevates these classes to phyla, and still another classification establishes different relationships between the groups—phylum Gastrotricha, phylum Rotifera, phylum Nematoda (containing classes Adenophorea, Secernentea, and Nematomorpha), and phylum Introverta (containing classes Kinorhyncha, Loricifera, Priapulida, and Acanthocephala). The true relationships between these pseudocoelomates remain to be established.

• Kingdom Monera (bacteria, archaebacteria, and blue-green algae)

• Kingdom Protista (protists)

  Algae other than the blue-green algae, protozoa, and slime molds.

• Kingdom Fungi (fungi)

• Kingdom Plantae (Metaphyta or Embryophyta; nonvascular and vascular plants)

  Includes mosses, liverworts, hornworts, whisk ferns, club mosses, horsetails, ferns, cycads, conifers, gnetophytes, ginkgophytes, and flowering plants.

  • • Division Bryophyta (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts)

    • Division Psilotophyta (whisk ferns or psilopsids)

    • Division Lycophyta (club mosses and quillworts)

    • Division Sphenophyta (horsetails)

    • Division Polypodiophyta (ferns)

    • Division Coniferophyta

      Includes pines, yews, spruces, firs, junipers, redwoods, and others.

    • Division Ginkgophyta (ginkgoes)

    • Division Cycadophyta (cycads)

    • Division Gnetophyta (gnetophytes)

    • Division Magnoliophyta (flowering plants)

      Includes monocots (grasses, rushes, sedges, cattails and pondweeds, palms, pineapple and other bromeliads, lilies, bananas, ginger, orchids, and others) and dicots or broad-leaved plants (most trees, buttercups, poppies, roses, violets, cacti, mints, squashes, sunflowers, and many others).

• Kingdom Animalia (or Metazoa)

  • Subkingdom Parazoa (sponges)

    • Phylum Porifera (sponges)

  • Subkingdom Eumetazoa

    • Phylum Mesozoa (mesozoans)

    • Phylum Cnidaria (or Coelenterata; cnidarians)

    • Phylum Ctenophora (ctenophores)

    • Phylum Platyhelminthes (flatworms)

    • Phylum Nemertea (or Rhynchocoela; ribbonworms)

    • Phylum (or class) Acanthocephala (spiny-headed worms)

    • Phylum Aschelminthes

    • Phylum Priapulida (priapulids)

    • Phylum Annelida (annelid worms)

    • Phylum Tardigrada

    • Phylum Onychophora

    • Phylum Arthropoda (arthropods)

    • Phylum Mollusca (mollusks)

    • Phylum Bryozoa (or Ectoprocta; bryozoans)

    • Phylum Phoronida (phoronid worms)

    • Phylum Brachiopoda (brachiopods)

    • Phylum Sipuncula (sipunculid worms)

    • Phylum Chaetognatha (arrowworms)

    • Phylum Echiurida (spoonworms)

    • Phylum Echinodermata (echinoderms)

    • Phylum Hemichordata (hemichordates)

    • Phylum Pogonophora (beardworms)

    • Phylum Chordata (chordates)