Biological Classification — Class 11 ISC Biology revision notes
A 5-page visual revision sheet for Biological Classification, written for Class 11 ISC Biology. Formulas, diagrams and the traps that cost marks, laid out to be read the night before rather than the term before. Free, and it opens inside CapCompass.
Page 1 as PDF
Biological Classification in one look
five kingdoms, and the things that fit in none of them
How the system got to five kingdoms
- Aristotle gave the first scientific attempt, splitting plants by habit and animals by whether they had red blood
- Linnaeus gave the two kingdom system, Plantae and Animalia, which stood for two centuries and hid every important distinction
- its failures: it put together prokaryotes and eukaryotes, unicellular and multicellular, and organisms that photosynthesise with those that absorb
- R H Whittaker, 1969, proposed the five kingdoms on cell structure, body organisation, mode of nutrition, reproduction and phylogenetic relationships
- Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, Animalia, and the fault line running through all of them is prokaryote against eukaryote
The five, on the criteria Whittaker used
| Kingdom | Cell type | Body | Nutrition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monera | prokaryotic | unicellular | autotrophic or heterotrophic |
| Protista | eukaryotic | unicellular | photosynthetic or ingestive |
| Fungi | eukaryotic | multicellular and mycelial, except the yeasts | absorptive, saprophytic or parasitic |
| Plantae | eukaryotic | multicellular | photosynthetic autotrophs |
| Animalia | eukaryotic | multicellular | ingestive heterotrophs |
Page 1 of 5. The full sheet, all 5 pages, opens free in the app.
What this Biological Classification sheet covers
- How the system got to five kingdoms
- The five, on the criteria Whittaker used
- Kingdom Monera, the bacteria
- Bacterial nutrition and reproduction
- Kingdom Protista, the eukaryotic odds and ends
- Kingdom Fungi
- The four fungal classes, told apart
- Plantae and Animalia, in the terms this chapter needs
- Viruses, viroids and prions, which belong to no kingdom
- Lichens, and the partnership that makes them
- Mycorrhiza, the other fungal partnership
- Diseases worth naming, by the group that causes them
- Why the five kingdom system is not the end of the story
- Traps that cost marks
- Tricks that save time
How CapCompass uses this sheet
These notes are not a standalone PDF. CapCompass plans Biology chapter by chapter against your real exam dates and free hours, and when the plan reaches Biological Classification the sheet opens inside the study block itself — at the page covering the sub-topic that block is on, with the timer still running. Revision arrives at the moment the plan says revise, instead of having to be gone looking for.