A Theory of Biological Classification
by Anton Lawson
1. Write the following words into your vocabulary chart. Then complete the
part of prior knowledge by checking off what vocabulary you know or don’t
know already.
characteristics
species
prokaryotes
eukaryotes
protests
animals
fungi
plants
5 kingdoms
phyla
classes
orders
families
genera
species
2. Read the article and mark the text. For this reading circle the
vocabulary words and underline the definitions or meanings of the words.
3. Complete the definitions on the vocabulary sheet by writing in your words
the definitions or meanings of the words. Do not just copy the definition
given from the article.
4. Answer the questions about the Taxa Level Chart at the bottom of the
article.
Questions:
1. Of the 5 species given, how many kingdoms are represented? Which
ones?
2. Which species are most closely related to humans? How closely related
are they? In other words, what taxa level is the closest?
3. Which species are most closely related to each other? How closely
related are they? Which taxa level?
4. The article says there are 5 kingdoms. How does this compare with your
text book? Read 18-3 from your text and explain what has changed since
this article was written by Anton Lawson.