Question

What is two kingdom classification? Give its drawbacks.

Answer 1

Hint:The two-kingdom classification was proposed by Carolus Linnaeus. He classified the living organisms into Kingdom Plantae and Kingdom Animalia.

Complete Answer:
The living organisms are categorised and classified on the basis of nutrition and mobility. The Plant Kingdom includes - all the organisms, which cannot move, that prepare their own food (autotrophs); and the Animal Kingdom includes - all the moving organisms, which can move, that depend on others for their food (heterotrophs).

Drawbacks of this classification are as follows :-
The plants consist of both photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic species.
Fungi are a group of organisms which lack chlorophyll. They are heterotrophic. But they are placed along with green plants.
Certain organisms share the characteristics of both plants and animals. eg. Sponges & Euglena.
The position of prokaryotes has been totally ignored.
Many organisms such as bacteria and lichens, did not fit into either of the categories.
The status of viruses - whether they are living or nonliving, is still controversial.
This system did not distinguish between the photosynthetic (green algae) and non-photosynthetic (fungi) organisms, unicellular and multicellular organisms, eukaryotes and prokaryotes, etc.
 No information about microorganisms is given.

Note:The Kingdom Plantae includes - photosynthetic plants and non - photosynthetic fungi, and bacteria (Prokaryotes). The Kingdom Animalia includes - multicellular animals or metazoans, and unicellular protozoans.