Expert: Walter Hintz - 7/3/2008

Question
I study in india in class 11th. I like biology but am weak in some areas. At present we are studying classification of living organism. I am not able to understand how organisms are divided into five kingdoms. What are the creterion used to do so. And how to identify any organism, is in which kingdom? Please Help. My basics are not so clear, which are very important.

Answer
 Hi Manu
Separating living things is done by discovering what they hae in common.  For example what do animals have in common that plants do not.  Once we have done that we can now divide the Kingdom again by finding what is the commonality among certain organisms. For example  members  the animal kingdom that have hair are put into one group and those that lay eggs are put into another. This is done until every mammal fits into a group Then the members of the group are separated further.
 Is this understandable?