The binomial system

There are millions of species on our planet. Although species can be very different
from each other, many have similar features that allow us to put them into groups.
This is called classification.

Kingdoms
The first big division of living things in the classification system is to put them into
one of five kingdoms. These are based on what an organism's cells are like.
The five kingdoms are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

animals (all multicellular animals)

plants (all green plants)
fungi (moulds, mushrooms, yeast)
prokaryotes (bacteria, blue-green algae)
protoctists (Amoeba, Chlorella and Plasmodium)

Further divisions
Living things can then be ranked according to:

phylum
class
order
family
genus
species

Vertebrates
Vertebrates are animals with backbones. They can be classified according to their
features, and include bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

Bony fish
Bony fish absorb oxygen through their gills and they have wet scales. Their body
temperature varies according to their surroundings (organisms that do this are
called poikilotherms). Bony fish reproduce by external fertilisation and lay eggs
(they are oviparous).

Clownfish are bony fish

l characteristics. It emphasises the evolutionary relationships between different
species.