# And then there were FIVE?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 25, 2000, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-five/9328 "2000-03-25T03:09:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2000, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-five/9328/21 "2000-03-27T22:46:00Z")
When I was in High school, there were four kingdoms: Plant, animal, single celled Eukaryotes, and prokaryotes. I remember at the time not being able to get an answer for where fungi belonged. For Kingdoms to have any meaning, you want organisms within a kingdom to be more closely related to each other than to organisms from a different kingdom. If you want to divide plants from animals, you’re forced into at least five Kingdoms, and if you don’t want fungi to be animals, you need six. From an article I saved from January, 1996, prokaryotes and Eukaryotes divided 2 Billion years ago. From an animal-centric point of view, archebacteria split off 1.7 billion years ago, algae split off 1.23 billion years ago, plants 1.0 billion years ago, and fungi 965 million years ago. ## I believe these divisions match up with Louie’s six kingdoms, with my prokaryotes his protoctista, and my algae his eubacteria. _It is too clear, and so it is hard to see._ ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2000, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-five/9328/22 "2000-03-28T13:58:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Markxxx: > \*\* > OK here’s another line from the everthing I learned in school was wrong. > > I learned we had plants or animals. Now I hear there are five (5) kingdoms. > > Animals, Plants, Fungi, Blue Green Alae, and one other I think Bacteria or something like that. > > Fungi (mushrooms) look like plants to me. Only they are non green plants. Why are they different?\*\* They sure do look like atypical plants, and that’s how they were classified for decades. They aren’t mobile, and they reproduce by spores or by offshoots from the parent body. Based mainly on their reproductive habits, my old high school biology textbook placed the fungi on the developmental line between algae and mosses. ## But now with genetic techniques organisms can be compared directly at the DNA level, and it turns out that fungi aren’t really plants at all. As far as multi-cellular organisms go, the division seems to be: Plants: Make their own food using chlorophyl Fungi: Digest whatever food is lying around Animals: Go out hunting for food. You say I’m blind, I say you’re hallucinating. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2000, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-five/9328/23 "2000-03-28T15:08:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by labradorian: > \*\*Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me! > \*\* ## OK, now that one’s driving me crazy. I remember the mnemonic, but what the hell is it **FOR**?! All I wanna do is to thank you, even though I don’t know who you are… ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2000, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-five/9328/24 "2000-03-28T16:40:00Z")
Oh, Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me (Right Now “Smack”) Corresponds to types of stars. (O, B, A, F, G, K, M) Os are blue-white supergiants, Gs are main sequence stars (like the Sun) and Ms are red dwarfs. (R, N and S are for some odd type stars that don’t fit the normal classifications.) * * * “Sometimes I think the web is just a big plot to keep people like me away from normal society.” — Dilbert ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2000, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-five/9328/25 "2000-03-28T19:03:00Z")
[Standard Disclaimer for all discussions involving categorization] Categories are things we invent to assist our thinking. They don’t exist in nature. We impose them. [/disclaimer] This is particularly true for biological taxa. We can’t even define a species with any precision, much less “higher” categories. Definitions which “definitely” include all members and exclude all non-members are extremely rare. We create categories according to what’s useful for present purposes. So it’s not remarkable that the categorization will change from time to time. George Lakoff provides a lengthy discussion of categories in his book _Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind_, including phenetics vs. cladistics criteria mentioned above. One of my favorite quotes from the book: > [@](#): > > (Jorge Luis) Borges attributes the following taxonomy of the animal kingdom to an ancient Chinese encyclopedia entitled the _Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge_. > > “On those remote pages it is written that animals are divided into (a) those that belong to the Emperor, (b) embalmed ones, © those that are trained, (d) suckling pigs, (e) mermaids, (f) fabulous ones, (g) stray dogs, (h) those that are included in this classification, (i) those that tremble as if they were mad, (j) innumerable ones, (k) those drawn with a very fine camel’s hair brush, (l) others, (m) those that have just broken a flower vase, (n) those that resemble flies from a distance.” (Borges, 1966, p. 108) * * * “I used to think the brain was the most important organ in the body, until I realized who was telling me that.” Emo Phillips ---
**Author:** ![Louie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Louie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Louie)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-five/9328/26 "2000-03-29T02:25:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Olentzero: > \*\* OK, now that one’s driving me crazy. I remember the mnemonic, but what the hell is it **FOR** **K** ids… **K** ingdom **P** ut… **P** hylum **C** ondoms… **C** lass **O** n… **O** rder **F** or… **F** amily **G** ood… **G** enus **S** ex… **S** pecies ## It’s for the classification stages in categorizing organisms. _Louie: young guy, possibly a bit green, but smart as paint._ - Greg Charles ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-five/9328/27 "2000-03-29T06:56:00Z")
Wait, Lor… “He says that fungi are plants, but have no chlorophyll and reproduce by sending out spores. Hence, they’re put into their own family.” Now I know you said this is oversimplified, but where does that leave ferns? They reproduce by sending out spores but are green and therefore have clorophyll (sp). ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-five/9328/28 "2000-03-29T06:59:00Z")
Oh, wait…and for you EEs out there - Bad Beer Rots Our Young Guts But Vodka Goes Well 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-five/9328/29 "2000-03-29T07:51:00Z")
Thanks, **TANSTAAFL**. Ah, my heady days as a stripling amateur astronomer… wish I were back in the boonies so I could get a good look at the sky once more. **louie** : read my message again and see which mnemonic I was asking about. * * * All I wanna do is to thank you, even though I don’t know who you are… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-five/9328.md?page=1)