Kingdom ( Biology ) - wikipedia Kingdom ( Biology ) The hierarchy of biological classification 's eight major taxonomic ranks. A domain contains one or more kingdoms. Intermediate minor rankings are not shown. In biology, kingdom ( Latin : regnum, plural regna ) is the second highest taxonomic rank, just below domain. Kingdoms are divided into smaller groups called phyla. Traditionally, some textbooks from the United States used a system of six kingdoms ( Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Archaea / Archaeabacteria, and Bacteria / Eubacteria ) while textbooks in Great Britain, India, Australia, Latin America and other countries used five kingdoms ( Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista and Monera ). Some recent classifications based on modern cladistics have explicitly abandoned the term `` kingdom '', noting that the traditional kingdoms are not monophyletic, i.e., do not consist of all the descendants of a common ancestor. Contents 1 Definition and associated terms 2 Modern view 2.1 The three domains of life 2.2 Kingdoms of the Eukaryota 3 Historical development 3.1 Cavalier - Smith 's systems 3.1. 1 Eight kingdoms 3.1. 2 Six kingdoms 3.1. 3 Seven kingdoms 4 Summary 5 Virus 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links Definition and associated terms When Carl Linnaeus introduced the rank - based system of nomenclature into biology in 1735, the highest rank was given the name `` kingdom '' and was followed by four other main or principal ranks : class, order, genus and species. Later two further main ranks were introduced, making the sequence kingdom, phylum or division, class, order, family, genus and species. In the 1960s a rank was introduced above kingdom, namely domain ( or empire ), so that kingdom is no longer the highest rank. Prefixes can be added so subkingdom ( subregnum ) and infrakingdom ( also known as infraregnum ) are the two ranks immediately below kingdom. Superkingdom may be considered as an equivalent of domain or empire or as an independent rank between kingdom and domain or subdomain. In some classification systems the additional rank branch ( Latin : ramus ) can be inserted between subkingdom and infrakingdom, e.g., Protostomia and Deuterostomia in the classification of Cavalier - Smith. Modern view The three domains of life Main article : Domain ( biology ) A phylogenetic tree based on rRNA data showing Woese 's three - domain system. All smaller branches can be considered kingdoms. From around the mid-1970s onwards, there was an increasing emphasis on comparisons of genes at the molecular level ( initially ribosomal RNA genes ) as the primary factor in classification ; genetic similarity was stressed over outward appearances and behavior. Taxonomic ranks, including kingdoms, were to be groups of organisms with a common ancestor, whether monophyletic ( all descendants of a common ancestor ) or paraphyletic ( only some descendants of a common ancestor ). Based on such RNA studies, Carl Woese thought life could be divided into three large divisions and referred to them as the `` three primary kingdom '' model or `` urkingdom '' model. In 1990, the name `` domain '' was proposed for the highest rank. This term represents a synonym for the category of dominion ( lat. dominium ), introduced by Moore in 1974. Unlike Moore, Woese et al. ( 1990 ) did not suggest a Latin term for this category, which represents a further argument supporting the accurately introduced term dominion. Woese divided the prokaryotes ( previously classified as the Kingdom Monera ) into two groups, called Eubacteria and Archaebacteria, stressing that there was as much genetic difference between these two groups as between either of them and all eukaryotes. According to genetic data, although eukaryote groups such as plants, fungi, and animals may look different, they are more closely related to each other than they are to either the Eubacteria or Archaea. It was also found that the eukaryotes are more closely related to the Archaea than they are to the Eubacteria. Although the primacy of the Eubacteria - Archaea divide has been questioned, it has been upheld by subsequent research. There is no consensus on how many kingdoms exist in the classification scheme proposed by Woese. Kingdoms of the eukaryota Phylogenetic and symbiogenetic tree of living organisms, showing the origins of eukaryotes & prokaryotes One hypothesis of eukaryotic relationships, modified from Simpson and Roger ( 2004 ). In 2004, a review article by Simpson and Roger noted that the Protista were `` a grab - bag for all eukaryotes that are not animals, plants or fungi ''. They held that only monophyletic groups should be accepted as formal ranks in a classification and that - while this approach had been impractical previously ( necessitating `` literally dozens of eukaryotic ' kingdoms ' '' ) - it had now become possible to divide the eukaryotes into `` just a few major groups that are probably all monophyletic ''. On this basis, the diagram opposite ( redrawn from their article ) showed the real `` kingdoms '' ( their quotation marks ) of the eukaryotes. A classification which followed this approach was produced in 2005 for the International Society of Protistologists, by a committee which `` worked in collaboration with specialists from many societies ''. It divided the eukaryotes into the same six `` supergroups ''. The published classification deliberately did not use formal taxonomic ranks, including that of `` kingdom ''. Life Domain Bacteria Bacteria Domain Archaea Archaea Domain Eukaryota Excavata -- Various flagellate protozoa Amoebozoa -- most lobose amoeboids and slime moulds Opisthokonta -- animals, fungi, choanoflagellates, etc. Rhizaria -- Foraminifera, Radiolaria, and various other amoeboid protozoa Chromalveolata -- Stramenopiles ( Brown Algae, Diatoms etc. ), Haptophyta, Cryptophyta ( or cryptomonads ), and Alveolata Archaeplastida ( or Primoplantae ) -- Land plants, green algae, red algae, and glaucophytes In this system the multicellular animals ( Metazoa ) are descended from the same ancestor as both the unicellular choanoflagellates and the fungi which form the Opisthokonta. Plants are thought to be more distantly related to animals and fungi. However, in the same year as the International Society of Protistologists ' classification was published ( 2005 ), doubts were being expressed as to whether some of these supergroups were monophyletic, particularly the Chromalveolata, and a review in 2006 noted the lack of evidence for several of the supposed six supergroups. As of 2010, there is widespread agreement that the Rhizaria belong with the Stramenopiles and the Alveolata, in a clade dubbed the SAR supergroup, so that Rhizaria is not one of the main eukaryote groups. Beyond this, there does not appear to be a consensus. Rogozin et al. in 2009 noted that `` The deep phylogeny of eukaryotes is an extremely difficult and controversial problem. '' As of December 2010, there appears to be a consensus that the 2005 six supergroup model does not reflect the true phylogeny of the eukaryotes and hence how they should be classified, although there is no agreement as to the model which should replace it. Historical development Life timeline view discuss edit - 4500 -- -- - 4000 -- -- - 3500 -- -- - 3000 -- -- - 2500 -- -- - 2000 -- -- - 1500 -- -- - 1000 -- -- - 500 -- -- 0 -- water Single - celled life photosynthesis Eukaryotes Multicellular life Land life Dinosaurs Mammals Flowers ← Earliest Earth ( − 4540 ) ← Earliest water ← Earliest life ← LHB meteorites ← Earliest oxygen ← Atmospheric oxygen ← Oxygen crisis ← Earliest sexual reproduction ← Ediacara biota ← Cambrian explosion ← Earliest humans h n r o z o i r o r o z o i r h n d n Pongola Huronian Cryogenian Andean Karoo Quaternary Axis scale : millions of years ago. Orange labels : ice ages. Also see : Human timeline and Nature timeline The classification of living things into animals and plants is an ancient one. Aristotle ( 384 -- 322 BC ) classified animal species in his History of Animals, while his pupil Theophrastus ( c. 371 -- c. 287 BC ) wrote a parallel work, the Historia Plantarum, on plants. Carl Linnaeus ( 1707 -- 1778 ) laid the foundations for modern biological nomenclature, now regulated by the Nomenclature Codes, in 1735. He distinguished two kingdoms of living things : Regnum Animale ( ' animal kingdom ' ) and Regnum Vegetabile ( ' vegetable kingdom ', for plants ). Linnaeus also included minerals in his classification system, placing them in a third kingdom, Regnum Lapideum. Life Regnum Vegetabile Regnum Animale In 1674, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, often called the `` father of microscopy '', sent the Royal Society of London a copy of his first observations of microscopic single - celled organisms. Until then, the existence of such microscopic organisms was entirely unknown. Despite this, Linnaeus did not include any microscopic creatures in his original taxonomy. At first, microscopic organisms were classified within the animal and plant kingdoms. However, by the mid-19th century, it had become clear to many that `` the existing dichotomy of the plant and animal kingdoms ( had become ) rapidly blurred at its boundaries and outmoded ''. In 1866, Ernst Haeckel proposed a third kingdom of life, the Protista, for `` neutral organisms '' which were neither animal nor plant. Haeckel revised the content of this kingdom a number of times before settling on a division based on whether organisms were unicellular ( Protista ) or multicellular ( animals and plants ). Life Kingdom Plantae Kingdom Protista Kingdom Animalia The development of the electron microscope revealed important distinctions between those unicellular organisms whose cells do not have a distinct nucleus ( prokaryotes ) and those unicellular and multicellular organisms whose cells do have a distinct nucleus ( eukaryotes ). In 1938, Herbert F. Copeland proposed a four - kingdom classification, elevating the protist classes of bacteria ( Monera ) and blue - green algae ( Phycochromacea ) to phyla in the novel Kingdom Monera. The importance of the distinction between prokaryotes and eukaryotes gradually became apparent. In the 1960s, Stanier and van Niel popularised Édouard Chatton 's much earlier proposal to recognise this division in a formal classification. This required the creation, for the first time, of a rank above kingdom, a superkingdom or empire, later called a domain. Haeckel 's original ( 1866 ) conception of the three kingdoms of life, including the new kingdom Protista. Notice the inclusion of the cyanobacterium Nostoc with plants. Life Domain Bacteria Kingdom Monera Empire Eukaryota Kingdom Protista Kingdom Plantae Kingdom Animalia The differences between fungi and other organisms regarded as plants had long been recognised by some ; Haeckel had moved the fungi out of Plantae into Protista after his original classification, but was largely ignored in this separation by scientists of his time. Robert Whittaker recognized an additional kingdom for the Fungi. The resulting five - kingdom system, proposed in 1969 by Whittaker, has become a popular standard and with some refinement is still used in many works and forms the basis for new multi-kingdom systems. It is based mainly upon differences in nutrition ; his Plantae were mostly multicellular autotrophs, his Animalia multicellular heterotrophs, and his Fungi multicellular saprotrophs. The remaining two kingdoms, Protista and Monera, included unicellular and simple cellular colonies. The five kingdom system may be combined with the two empire system : Life Empire Prokaryota Kingdom Monera Empire Eukaryota Kingdom Fungi Kingdom Protista Kingdom Plantae Kingdom Animalia In the Whittaker system, Plantae included some algae. In other systems ( e.g., Margulis system ), Plantae included just the land plants ( Embryophyta ). Despite the development from two kingdoms to five among most scientists, some authors as late as 1975 continued to employ a traditional two - kingdom system of animals and plants, dividing the plant kingdom into Subkingdoms Prokaryota ( bacteria and cyanophytes ), Mycota ( fungi and supposed relatives ), and Chlorota ( algae and land plants ). Cavalier - Smith 's systems Main article : Cavalier - Smith 's system of classification Eight kingdoms See also : Archaebacteria, Chromista, and Archezoa Thomas Cavalier - Smith thought at first, as it was nearly consensually admitted at that time, that the difference between eubacteria and archaebacteria was so great ( particularly considering the genetic distance of ribosomal genes ) that they needed to be separated into two different kingdoms, hence splitting the empire Bacteria into two kingdoms. He then divided Eubacteria into two subkingdoms : Negibacteria ( Gram negative bacteria ) and Posibacteria ( Gram positive bacteria ). Technological advances in electron microscopy allowed the separation of the Chromista from the Plantae kingdom. Indeed, the chloroplast of the chromists is located in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum instead of in the cytosol. Moreover, only chromists contain chlorophyll c. Since then, many non-photosynthetic phyla of protists, thought to have secondarily lost their chloroplasts, were integrated into the kingdom Chromista. Finally, some protists lacking mitochondria were discovered. As mitochondria were known to be the result of the endosymbiosis of a proteobacterium, it was thought that these amitochondriate eukaryotes were primitively so, marking an important step in eukaryogenesis. As a result, these amitochondriate protists were separated from the protist kingdom, giving rise to the, at the same time, superkingdom and kingdom Archezoa. This was known as the Archezoa hypothesis. This superkingdom was opposed to the Metakaryota superkingdom, grouping together the five other eukaryotic kingdoms ( Animalia, Protozoa, Fungi, Plantae and Chromista ). Six kingdoms In 1998, Cavalier - Smith published a six - kingdom model, which has been revised in subsequent papers. The version published in 2009 is shown below. ( Compared to the version he published in 2004, the alveolates and the rhizarians have been moved from Kingdom Protozoa to Kingdom Chromista. ) Cavalier - Smith no longer accepts the importance of the fundamental eubacteria -- archaebacteria divide put forward by Woese and others and supported by recent research. His Kingdom Bacteria includes Archaebacteria as a phylum of the subkingdom Unibacteria which comprises only one other phylum : the Posibacteria. The two subkingdoms Unibacteria and Negibacteria of kingdom Bacteria ( sole kingdom of empire Prokaryota ) are opposed according to their membrane topologies. The bimembranous - unimembranous transition is thought to be far more fundamental than the long branch of genetic distance of Archaebacteria, viewed as having no particular biological significance. Cavalier - Smith does not accept the requirement for taxa to be monophyletic ( `` holophyletic '' in his terminology ) to be valid. He defines Prokaryota, Bacteria, Negibacteria, Unibacteria and Posibacteria as valid paraphyletic ( therefore `` monophyletic '' in the sense he uses this term ) taxa, marking important innovations of biological significance ( in regard of the concept of biological niche ). In the same way, his paraphyletic kingdom Protozoa includes the ancestors of Animalia, Fungi, Plantae and Chromista. The advances of phylogenetic studies allowed Cavalier - Smith to realize that all the phyla thought to be archezoans ( i.e. primitively amitochondriate eukaryotes ) had in fact secondarily lost their mitochondria, most of the time by transforming them into new organelles : hydrogenosomes. This means that all living eukaryotes are in fact metakaryotes, according to the significance of the term given by Cavalier - Smith. Some of the members of the defunct kingdom Archezoa, like the phylum Microsporidia, were reclassified into kingdom Fungi. Others were reclassified in kingdom Protozoa like Metamonada which is now part of infrakingdom Excavata. The diagram below does not represent an evolutionary tree. Life Empire Prokaryota Kingdom Bacteria -- includes Archaebacteria as part of a subkingdom Empire Eukaryota Kingdom Protozoa -- e.g. Amoebozoa, Choanozoa, Excavata Kingdom Chromista -- e.g. Alveolata, cryptophytes, Heterokonta ( Brown Algae, Diatoms etc. ), Haptophyta, Rhizaria Kingdom Plantae -- e.g. glaucophytes, red and green algae, land plants Kingdom Fungi Kingdom Animalia Seven kingdoms Cavalier - Smith and his collaborators revised the classification in 2015, and published it in PLOS ONE. In this scheme they reintroduced the division of prokaryotes into two kingdoms, Bacteria ( = Eubacteria ) and Archaea ( = Archaebacteria ). This is based on the consensus in the Taxonomic Outline of Bacteria and Archaea ( TOBA ) and the Catalogue of Life. Summary A summary of the different kinds of proposed classification schemes presented in this article is summarized in the table below. Linnaeus 1735 Haeckel 1866 Chatton 1925 Copeland 1938 Whittaker 1969 Woese et al. 1977 Woese et al. Cavalier - Smith Cavalier - Smith 1998 Ruggiero et al. 2015 2 kingdoms 3 kingdoms 2 empires 4 kingdoms 5 kingdoms 6 kingdoms 3 domains 8 kingdoms 6 kingdoms 7 kingdoms ( not treated ) Protista Prokaryota Monera Monera Eubacteria Bacteria Eubacteria Bacteria Bacteria Archaebacteria Archaea Archaebacteria Archaea Eukaryota Protista Protista Protista Eucarya Archezoa Protozoa Protozoa Protozoa Chromista Chromista Chromista Vegetabilia Plantae Plantae Plantae Plantae Plantae Plantae Plantae Fungi Fungi Fungi Fungi Fungi Animalia Animalia Animalia Animalia Animalia Animalia Animalia Animalia The kingdom - level classification of life is still widely employed as a useful way of grouping organisms, notwithstanding some problems with this approach : Kingdoms such as Bacteria represent grades rather than clades, and so are rejected by phylogenetic classification systems. The most recent research does not support the classification of the eukaryotes into any of the standard systems. As of April 2010, no set of kingdoms is sufficiently supported by research to attain widespread acceptance. In 2009, Andrew Roger and Alastair Simpson emphasized the need for diligence in analyzing new discoveries : `` With the current pace of change in our understanding of the eukaryote tree of life, we should proceed with caution. '' Virus There is ongoing debate as to whether viruses, obligate intracellular parasites that lack metabolism and are not capable of replication outside of a host, can be included in the tree of life. If included, their placement in the tree would be problematic since it is suspected that viruses have arisen multiple times, and they have a penchant for accumulating nucleotide sequences from their hosts. A principal reason for inclusion comes from the discovery of unusually large and complex viruses, such as Mimivirus, that possess typical cellular genes. See also Cladistics Systematics References Jump up ^ C. Linnaeus ( 1735 ). `` Systemae Naturae, sive regna tria naturae, systematics proposita per classes, ordines, genera & species ''. Jump up ^ See e.g. McNeill, J. ; et al., eds. ( 2006 ), International Code of Botanical Nomenclature ( Vienna Code ) Adopted by the Seventeenth International Botanical Congress, Vienna, Austria, July 2005 ( electronic ed. ), Vienna : International Association for Plant Taxonomy, archived from the original on 6 October 2012, retrieved 2011 - 02 - 20, article 3.1 ^ Jump up to : Cavalier - Smith, T. ( 1998 ), `` A revised six - kingdom system of life '', Biological Reviews, 73 ( 3 ) : 203 -- 66, doi : 10.1111 / j. 1469 - 185X. 1998. tb00030. x, PMID 9809012 Jump up ^ Balch, W.E. ; Magrum, L.J. ; Fox, G.E. ; Wolfe, C.R. & Woese, C.R. ( August 1977 ), `` An ancient divergence among the bacteria '', J. Mol. Evol., 9 ( 4 ) : 305 -- 11, doi : 10.1007 / BF01796092, PMID 408502 Jump up ^ Woese, C.R. ; Kandler, O. ; Wheelis, M.L. ( 1990 ). `` Towards a natural system of organisms : proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya ''. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 87 ( 12 ) : 4576 -- 9. Bibcode : 1990PNAS... 87.4576 W. doi : 10.1073 / pnas. 87.12. 4576. PMC 54159. PMID 2112744. Jump up ^ Moore R.T. ( 1974 ). `` Proposal for the recognition of super ranks '' ( PDF ). Taxon. 23 ( 4 ) : 650 -- 652. doi : 10.2307 / 1218807. Jump up ^ Luketa S. ( 2012 ). `` New views on the megaclassification of life '' ( PDF ). Protistology. 7 ( 4 ) : 218 -- 237. ^ Jump up to : Dagan, T. ; Roettger, M. ; Bryant & Martin, W. ( 2010 ), `` Genome Networks Root the Tree of Life between Prokaryotic Domains '', Genome Biology and Evolution, 2 : : 379 -- 92, doi : 10.1093 / gbe / evq025 ^ Jump up to : Simpson, Alastair G.B. ; Roger, Andrew J. `` The real ' kingdoms ' of eukaryotes ''. Current Biology. 14 ( 17 ) : R693 -- R696. doi : 10.1016 / j. cub. 2004.08. 038. PMID 15341755. ^ Jump up to : Adl, Sina M. ; et al. ( 2005 ), `` The New Higher Level Classification of Eukaryotes with Emphasis on the Taxonomy of Protists '', Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 52 ( 5 ) : 399 -- 451, doi : 10.1111 / j. 1550 - 7408.2005. 00053. x, PMID 16248873 Jump up ^ Harper, J.T. ; Waanders, E. & Keeling, P.J. ( 2005 ), `` On the monophyly of chromalveolates using a six - protein phylogeny of eukaryotes '' ( PDF ), Nt. J. System. Evol. Microbiol., 55 ( Pt 1 ) : 487 -- 496, doi : 10.1099 / ijs. 0.63216 - 0, PMID 15653923, archived from the original ( PDF ) on 2011 - 05 - 11 Jump up ^ Parfrey, Laura W. ; Barbero, Erika ; Lasser, Elyse ; Dunthorn, Micah ; Bhattacharya, Debashish ; Patterson, David J. & Katz, Laura A. ( 2006 ), `` Evaluating Support for the Current Classification of Eukaryotic Diversity '', PLoS Genet., 2 ( 12 ) : e220, doi : 10.1371 / journal. pgen. 0020220, PMC 1713255, PMID 17194223 Jump up ^ Burki et al. 2007, p. 4 ^ Jump up to : Cavalier - Smith, Thomas ( 2009 ), `` Kingdoms Protozoa and Chromista and the eozoan root of the eukaryotic tree '', Biology Letters, 6 ( 3 ) : 342 -- 5, doi : 10.1098 / rsbl. 2009.0948, PMC 2880060, PMID 20031978 ^ Jump up to : Burki, Fabien ; Shalchian - Tabrizi, Kamran ; Minge, Marianne ; Skjæveland, Åsmund ; Nikolaev, Sergey I. ; Jakobsen, Kjetill S. & Pawlowski, Jan ( 2007 ), Butler, Geraldine, ed., `` Phylogenomics Reshuffles the Eukaryotic Supergroups '', PLoS ONE, 2 ( 8 ) : e790, Bibcode : 2007PLoSO... 2... 790B, doi : 10.1371 / journal. pone. 0000790, PMC 1949142, PMID 17726520 ^ Jump up to : Burki, Fabien ; Shalchian - Tabrizi, Kamran & Pawlowski, Jan ( 2008 ), `` Phylogenomics reveals a new ' megagroup ' including most photosynthetic eukaryotes '', Biology Letters, 4 ( 4 ) : 366 -- 369, doi : 10.1098 / rsbl. 2008.0224, PMC 2610160, PMID 18522922. Jump up ^ Burki, F. ; Inagaki, Y. ; Brate, J. ; Archibald, J.M. ; Keeling, P.J. ; Cavalier - Smith, T. ; Sakaguchi, M. ; Hashimoto, T. ; et al. ( 2009 ), `` Large - Scale Phylogenomic Analyses Reveal That Two Enigmatic Protist Lineages, Telonemia and Centroheliozoa, Are Related to Photosynthetic Chromalveolates '', Genome Biology and Evolution, 1 : 231 -- 8, doi : 10.1093 / gbe / evp022, PMC 2817417, PMID 20333193 CS1 maint : Explicit use of et al. ( link ) Jump up ^ Hackett, J.D. ; Yoon, H.S. ; Li, S. ; Reyes - Prieto, A. ; Rummele, S.E. & Bhattacharya, D. ( 2007 ), `` Phylogenomic analysis supports the monophyly of cryptophytes and haptophytes and the association of Rhizaria with chromalveolates '', Mol. Biol. Evol., 24 ( 8 ) : 1702 -- 13, doi : 10.1093 / molbev / msm089, PMID 17488740 Jump up ^ Rogozin, I.B. ; Basu, M.K. ; Csürös, M. & Koonin, E.V. ( 2009 ), `` Analysis of Rare Genomic Changes Does Not Support the Unikont -- Bikont Phylogeny and Suggests Cyanobacterial Symbiosis as the Point of Primary Radiation of Eukaryotes '', Genome Biology and Evolution, 1 : 99 -- 113, doi : 10.1093 / gbe / evp011, PMC 2817406, PMID 20333181 Jump up ^ Kim, E. ; Graham, L.E. & Redfield, Rosemary Jeanne ( 2008 ), Redfield, Rosemary Jeanne, ed., `` EEF2 analysis challenges the monophyly of Archaeplastida and Chromalveolata '', PLoS ONE, 3 ( 7 ) : e2621, Bibcode : 2008PLoSO... 3.2621 K, doi : 10.1371 / journal. pone. 0002621, PMC 2440802, PMID 18612431 Jump up ^ Singer, Charles J. ( 1931 ), A short history of biology, a general introduction to the study of living things, Oxford : Clarendon Press, OCLC 1197036 ^ Jump up to : Scamardella, Joseph M. ( 1999 ), `` Not plants or animals : a brief history of the origin of Kingdoms Protozoa, Protista and Protoctista '', International Microbiology, 2 ( 4 ) : 207 -- 16, PMID 10943416 Jump up ^ Stanier, R.Y. & Van Neil, C.B. ( 1962 ), `` The concept of a bacterium '', Archiv für Mikrobiologie, 42 ( 1 ) : 17 -- 35, doi : 10.1007 / BF00425185, PMID 13916221 Jump up ^ Whittaker, R.H. ( January 1969 ), `` New concepts of kingdoms or organisms. Evolutionary relations are better represented by new classifications than by the traditional two kingdoms '', Science, 163 ( 3863 ) : 150 -- 60, Bibcode : 1969Sci... 163... 150W, doi : 10.1126 / science. 163.3863. 150, PMID 5762760 Jump up ^ Palmer, E. Laurence ; Fowler, Seymour H ( January 1975 ), Fieldbook of Natural History : Second Edition, McGraw - Hill, ISBN 978 - 0070484252 Jump up ^ Cavalier - Smith, Thomas ( March 26, 1987 ). `` Eucaryotes with no mitochondria ''. Nature. 326 ( 6111 ) : 332 -- 333. doi : 10.1038 / 326332a0. Jump up ^ Cavalier - Smith, T. ( 2004 ), `` Only six kingdoms of life '' ( PDF ), Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B, 271 ( 1545 ) : 1251 -- 62, doi : 10.1098 / rspb. 2004.2705, PMC 1691724, PMID 15306349, retrieved 2010 - 04 - 29 Jump up ^ Ruggiero, Michael A. ; Gordon, Dennis P. ; Orrell, Thomas M. ; Bailly, Nicolas ; Bourgoin, Thierry ; Brusca, Richard C. ; Cavalier - Smith, Thomas ; Guiry, Michael D. ; Kirk, Paul M. ; Thuesen, Erik V. ( 2015 ). `` A higher level classification of all living organisms ''. PLOS ONE. 10 ( 4 ) : e0119248. doi : 10.1371 / journal. pone. 0119248. PMC 4418965. PMID 25923521. Jump up ^ Linnaeus, C. ( 1735 ). Systemae Naturae, sive regna tria naturae, systematics proposita per classes, ordines, genera & species. Jump up ^ Haeckel, E. ( 1866 ). Generelle Morphologie der Organismen. Reimer, Berlin. Jump up ^ Chatton, É. ( 1925 ). `` Pansporella perplexa. Réflexions sur la biologie et la phylogénie des protozoaires ''. Annales des Sciences Naturelles - Zoologie et Biologie Animale. 10 - VII : 1 -- 84. Jump up ^ Chatton, É. ( 1937 ). Titres et Travaux Scientifiques ( 1906 -- 1937 ). Sette, Sottano, Italy. Jump up ^ Copeland, H. ( 1938 ). `` The kingdoms of organisms ''. Quarterly Review of Biology. 13 : 383 -- 420. doi : 10.1086 / 394568. Jump up ^ Copeland, H.F. ( 1956 ). The Classification of Lower Organisms. Palo Alto : Pacific Books. p. 6. doi : 10.5962 / bhl. title. 4474. Jump up ^ Whittaker, R.H. ( January 1969 ). `` New concepts of kingdoms of organisms ''. Science. 163 ( 3863 ) : 150 -- 60. Bibcode : 1969Sci... 163... 150W. doi : 10.1126 / science. 163.3863. 150. PMID 5762760. Jump up ^ Woese, C.R. ; Balch, W.E. ; Magrum, L.J. ; Fox, G.E. ; Wolfe, R.S. ( August 1977 ). `` An ancient divergence among the bacteria ''. Journal of Molecular Evolution. 9 ( 4 ) : 305 -- 311. doi : 10.1007 / BF01796092. PMID 408502. Jump up ^ Woese, C.R. ; Fox, G.E. ( November 1977 ). `` Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain : the primary kingdoms ''. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 74 ( 11 ) : 5088 -- 90. Bibcode : 1977PNAS... 74.5088 W. doi : 10.1073 / pnas. 74.11. 5088. PMC 432104. PMID 270744. Jump up ^ Woese, C. ; Kandler, O. ; Wheelis, M. ( 1990 ). `` Towards a natural system of organisms : proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya ''. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 87 ( 12 ) : 4576 -- 9. Bibcode : 1990PNAS... 87.4576 W. doi : 10.1073 / pnas. 87.12. 4576. PMC 54159. PMID 2112744. Jump up ^ Cavalier - Smith, T. ( 1981 ). `` Eukaryote kingdoms : seven or nine ? ''. Bio Systems. 14 ( 3 -- 4 ) : 461 -- 481. doi : 10.1016 / 0303 - 2647 ( 81 ) 90050 - 2. PMID 7337818. Jump up ^ Cavalier - Smith, T. ( 1992 ). `` Origins of secondary metabolism ''. Ciba Foundation symposium. 171 : 64 -- 80 ; discussion 80 -- 7. PMID 1302186. Jump up ^ Cavalier - Smith, T. ( 1993 ). `` Kingdom protozoa and its 18 phyla ''. Microbiological reviews. 57 ( 4 ) : 953 -- 994. PMC 372943. PMID 8302218. Jump up ^ Cavalier - Smith, T. ( 1998 ), `` A revised six - kingdom system of life '', Biological Reviews, 73 ( 03 ) : 203 -- 66, doi : 10.1111 / j. 1469 - 185X. 1998. tb00030. x, PMID 9809012 Jump up ^ Cavalier - Smith, T. ( 2004 ), `` Only six kingdoms of life '' ( PDF ), Proceedings of the Royal Society B : Biological Sciences, 271 : 1251 -- 62, doi : 10.1098 / rspb. 2004.2705, PMC 1691724, PMID 15306349, retrieved 2010 - 04 - 29 Jump up ^ Cavalier - Smith T ( June 2010 ). `` Kingdoms Protozoa and Chromista and the eozoan root of the eukaryotic tree ''. Biol. Lett. 6 ( 3 ) : 342 -- 5. doi : 10.1098 / rsbl. 2009.0948. PMC 2880060. PMID 20031978. Jump up ^ Ruggiero, Michael A. ; Gordon, Dennis P. ; Orrell, Thomas M. ; Bailly, Nicolas ; Bourgoin, Thierry ; Brusca, Richard C. ; Cavalier - Smith, Thomas ; Guiry, Michael D. ; Kirk, Paul M. ; Thuesen, Erik V. ( 2015 ). `` A higher level classification of all living organisms ''. PLOS ONE. 10 ( 4 ) : e0119248. doi : 10.1371 / journal. pone. 0119248. PMC 4418965. PMID 25923521. Jump up ^ Roger, A.J. & Simpson, A.G.B. ( 2009 ), `` Evolution : Revisiting the Root of the Eukaryote Tree '', Current Biology, 19 ( 4 ) : R165 -- 7, doi : 10.1016 / j. cub. 2008.12. 032, PMID 19243692 Jump up ^ Moreira, David ; Purificación López - García ( 2009 ). `` Ten reasons to exclude viruses from the tree of life ''. Nature Reviews Microbiology. 7 ( 4 ) : 306 -- 311. doi : 10.1038 / nrmicro2108. PMID 19270719. Jump up ^ Hegde, Nagendra ; Maddur, Mohan S. ; Kaveri, Srini V. & Bayry, Jagadeesh ( 2009 ). `` Reasons to include viruses in the tree of life ''. Nature Reviews Microbiology. 7 ( 8 ) : 615. doi : 10.1038 / nrmicro2108 - c1. PMID 19561628. Jump up ^ Luketa, Stefan ( 2012 ). `` New views on the megaclassification of life '' ( PDF ). Protistology. 7 ( 4 ) : 218 -- 237. Jump up ^ Raoult, Didier ; Audic, Stéphane ; Robert, Catherine ; Abergel, Chantal ; Renesto, Patricia ; Ogata, Hiroyuki ; La Scola, Bernard ; Suzan, Marie ; Claverie, Jean - Michel ( 2004 ). `` The 1.2 - Megabase Genome Sequence of Mimivirus ''. Science. 306 ( 5700 ) : 1344 -- 1350. Bibcode : 2004Sci... 306.1344 R. doi : 10.1126 / science. 1101485. PMID 15486256. Further reading Pelentier, B. ( 2007 - 2015 ). Empire Biota : a comprehensive taxonomy, ( 1 ). ( Historical overview. ) Peter H. Raven and Helena Curtis ( 1970 ), Biology of Plants, New York : Worth Publishers. ( Early presentation of five - kingdom system. ) External links A Brief History of the Kingdoms of Life at Earthling Nature The five kingdom concept Whittaker 's classification Taxonomic ranks Domain / Superkingdom Kingdom Subkingdom Infrakingdom / Branch Superphylum / Superdivision Phylum / Division Subphylum Infraphylum Microphylum Superclass Class Subclass Infraclass Parvclass Legion Cohort Magnorder Superorder Order Suborder Infraorder Parvorder Section ( zoo. ) Superfamily Family Subfamily Supertribe Tribe Subtribe Genus Subgenus Section ( bot. ) Series ( bot. ) Species Subspecies Variety Form Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kingdom_(biology)&oldid=827947514 '' Categories : Kingdoms ( biology ) Biology terminology Hidden categories : CS1 maint : Explicit use of et al. All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from January 2017 Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2010 All articles containing potentially dated statements Articles containing potentially dated statements from December 2010 Articles containing potentially dated statements from April 2010 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikispecies Afrikaans Aragonés অসমীয়া Asturianu Avañe'ẽ বাংলা Bân - lâm - gú Башҡортса Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ भोजपुरी Boarisch Bosanski Brezhoneg Català Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Estremeñu Euskara فارسی Français Frysk Gaeilge Gaelg Galego 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hornjoserbsce Hrvatski Ilokano Bahasa Indonesia Interlingua Íslenska Italiano עברית Basa Jawa Kapampangan Latina Latviešu Lëtzebuergesch Lietuvių Limburgs Magyar മലയാളം Malti मराठी Bahasa Melayu မြန်မာဘာသာ Nederlands 日本 語 Napulitano Norsk Norsk nynorsk Occitan Олык марий ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی Polski Português Română Runa Simi Русиньскый Русский Саха тыла Scots Sicilianu Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Soomaaliga Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Tagalog தமிழ் Taqbaylit Татарча / tatarça ไทย Türkçe Türkmençe Українська اردو Vèneto Tiếng Việt Walon West - Vlams Winaray 粵語 Zeêuws 中文 90 more Edit links This page was last edited on 27 February 2018, at 18 : 02. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who proposed the five kingdom classification of living organisms
Answer: Robert Whittaker