Question

Four Kingdom classification was proposed by
(a) Whittaker
(b) Copeland
(c) Haeckel
(d) Linnaeus

Answer 1

Hint: Organisms are grouped into different taxa and these groups are given a taxonomic rank and different groups of given ranks are further aggregated to form super-groups of higher rank. This creates the taxonomic hierarchy. A taxon is a group of organisms that are classified as one unit.

Complete answer:
The kingdom is the second taxon in the hierarchy after the domain.
Scientists have been grouping the living organisms under different categories for a very long time. Some biologists classified organisms into plants and animals which was called the Two Kingdom classification.
Ernst Haeckel, Robert Whittaker, and Carl Woese are some other biologists who attempted to form a broader system of classification.
Among them, Herbert F. Copeland proposed a four-kingdom classification, elevating the protist classes of bacteria and blue-green algae to phyla in the new Kingdom Monera.
He divided the organisms into Four Kingdoms namely
-Kingdom Monera
-Kingdom Protista
-Kingdom Plantae
-Kingdom Animalia
This system was formed to separately classify the unicellular prokaryotes from other eukaryotes rather than grouping all the unicellular organisms together.

Additional Information: -The Four Kingdom system had its drawbacks and in 1969 R.H. Whittaker proposed a Five Kingdom classification based on the mode of nutrition.
-He divided the organisms into Five Kingdoms namely
Kingdom Monera
Kingdom Protista
Kingdom Fungi
Kingdom Plante
Kingdom Animalia
-This system was more comprehensive and certain organisms like Yeast which is a unicellular eukaryote was better classified according to its nutrition into the Kingdom Fungi added to the already present Four Kingdom classification proposed by Copeland.
So, the correct answer is ‘Copeland.’

Note: The Five Kingdom classification too is an incomplete classification as Viruses do not find the right place in this classification. There are many new Multi-Kingdom classifications that have been proposed.