Major groups of organisms in over 8 million types

Study Zone Institute April 25, 2023 Sciences

By Darius Soyer. There are said to be over 8 million different types of living organisms and humans are just one of them. You ever wondered how scientists deal with such a wide range of organisms? They place them into groups of organisms as most have similar characteristics to one another.

All organisms that exist can be placed in one of three major groups which helps easily identify them from one another. Here are the 3 major groups of organisms.

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3 Major groups of organisms

Prokaryotes

Prokaryotes make up one of the 3 groups of organisms. These are the living organisms whose cells do not contain a nucleus. Prokaryotes consists of one cell. They live in many different environments ranging from dirt, water, air or even on plants and animals.

Seeing that humans are also labelled animals, we too have bacteria in us. There are good and bad bacteria. Lactobacilli is an example of good bacteria (probiotic) and it helps with the breaking down of food and absorbing its nutrients.

Some have gotten so resilient that they live in high temperatures even at around 360 degrees Celsius or the complete opposite at freezing temperatures in the ice. These are the smallest organisms with a cellular structure and are most often called bacteria.

Prokaryotes are very important as they aid in the process of decay and with the cycle of nitrogen. The lack of organelles in the cell like the nucleus is what makes prokaryotes different from eukaryotes.

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Eukaryotes

Eukaryotes make up another one of the 3 groups of organisms. Eukaryotes are organisms whose cell(s) contain a nucleus. They have a wide range of different sub-categories. Protoctista or Protoctist, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia all vary and have many differences but also shares some similarities.

An example of this is when mold appear on sandwiches and cheese, that scary fuzz is alive. Not all fungi are bad, the yeast we put in our bread is a fungus and if you ask me, it’s delicious.

The eukaryotic cell(s) has a nuclear membrane around the nucleus where the material containing hereditary information is contained (chromosomes). The eukaryotic cells contain other organelles that help make the other organisms unique and perform certain tasks, there are a few exceptions to this.

Virus

Viruses make up the 3rd one of the groups of organisms. Viruses are in sort of a grey area in the terms of it being a living organism. This is because it needs to be in a host to live, meaning they cannot technically count as a living thing.

Viruses are the smallest organisms and do reproduce while in other cells. It is believed that there are billions of viruses that exist but only “live” when inside another cell. Most of us know viruses to be pathogens that are harmful to us but some viruses are actually beneficial to its host.

In conclusion

There is an enormous population of living organisms. No matter how big they are or what they do, they can all be identified by characteristics that make them easily be classified into one of three main groups of organisms. This article should help you to understand to an extent the different groups of “living” organisms.

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