Practise Classification of living organisms. 12 exam-style questions plus unlimited generated ones on this subtopic, at up to four difficulty levels, with full mark schemes and a progress tracker. Free, no account needed.
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In 1990, Carl Woese proposed a new system of classification called the three-domain system. Which domain contains fungi, plants and animals?
Eukaryota
Write these groups in order, from the largest group to the smallest. class · family · genus · kingdom · order · phylum · species
kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species
Sample questions
Written for this site in the style of AQA exam questions. They are not taken from real past papers.
Question 1Easy5 marks
Carl Linnaeus developed a system for classifying living things into groups.
(a) Write these groups in order, from the largest group to the smallest. class · family · genus · kingdom · order · phylum · species[2]
(b) Complete the sentence. In the binomial system, the first part of an organism's name is its ....................... and the second part is its ....................... .[2]
(c) Which scientist developed the three-domain system of classification? Tick (✓) one box.[1]
Charles Darwin
Carl Linnaeus
Gregor Mendel
Carl Woese
Show the answer and mark scheme
(a)Answer: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species
kingdom, phylum, class at the start (in that order)
order, family, genus, species at the end (in that order)
(b)Answer: genus; species
genus
species
(c)Answer: Carl Woese
Question 2Medium6 marks
In 1990, Carl Woese proposed a new system of classification called the three-domain system.
(a) Which domain contains fungi, plants and animals?[1]
(b) One domain contains primitive bacteria that usually live in extreme environments. Name this domain.[1]
(c) The three-domain system was developed using evidence from chemical analysis. Explain why this evidence led to a change in the classification system.[2]
(d) Explain how improvements in microscopes affected the classification of living things.[2]
Show the answer and mark scheme
(a)Answer: Eukaryota
eukaryota / eukaryotes
(b)Answer: Archaea
archaea
(c)
chemical analysis showed that archaea are very different from (true) bacteria / organisms that look similar may not be closely related
(so) they were placed in a separate group / domain / the old system did not show how closely organisms are related
(d)
better microscopes showed the internal structures / details of cells
(so) organisms could be grouped using more features / new classification models were proposed / some organisms were reclassified
Question 3Hard6 marks
Living things have been classified into groups for hundreds of years. The ways in which scientists classify organisms have changed over time.
Describe how, and explain why, systems for classifying living things have changed since the system developed by Carl Linnaeus.[6]
Show the answer and mark scheme
Linnaeus classified living things into groups based on their structure and characteristics
his groups were kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species, and organisms were named by the binomial system (genus and species)
improvements in microscopes revealed internal structures, e.g. of cells, giving new evidence for grouping organisms
as understanding of biochemical processes improved, new models of classification were proposed
chemical analysis showed that some organisms that look similar, e.g. bacteria and archaea, are very different
Carl Woese developed the three-domain system: archaea (primitive bacteria usually living in extreme environments), bacteria (true bacteria) and eukaryota (protists, fungi, plants and animals)
comparing DNA shows how closely organisms are related, so some organisms have been reclassified
evolutionary trees now show how organisms are thought to be related, using current classification data for living organisms and fossil data for extinct organisms
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