Characteristics of living things

Further classification

Based on the information above, we can confidently categorise earthworms as living things as they carry out all seven life processes.

It is now possible to classify them further into a series of hierarchical categories: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. Classifying living things into these categories is an important way for scientists to show how living things are related to each other. Most scientists classify living things into one of the following six kingdoms.

  • Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms that don’t have a nuclear membrane.
  • Protozoans are single-celled organisms that are generally much larger than bacteria. They may be autotrophic or heterotrophic.
  • Chromists are a diverse group of plant-like organisms and range from very small to very large. They are found in almost all environments.
  • Fungi are multicellular and rely on breaking down organic material as they are not able to make their own food.
  • Plants are multicellular and autotrophic – they use photosynthesis to produce food using sunlight.
  • Animals are multicellular. They are heterotrophic and rely on other organisms for food.

Which kingdom do you think earthworms belong to?

Animal characteristics

What did you decide? Sometimes people are surprised to find out that earthworms are actually animals – the same kingdom as humans, cats, dogs, dolphins and spiders! Just as living things share a set of common characteristics, animals have key characteristics that can help you to decide whether a living thing is an animal or not.

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