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Article: Living things move out 'kingdoms' and into 'empires'.(Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- March 20, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WASHINGTON _ Remember your biology class? Along with dissecting frogs, you learned that all living things belonged to five ``kingdoms'' _ animals, plants, funguses and a couple others whose names you forget.
Science has changed all that. Thanks to recent advances in technology, biologists now divide life into three vast ``empires'' containing at least 20 lesser ``kingdoms.'' Most of them are populated by creatures too small to see, some deadly, but many essential to our existence.
It is now clear that there are many more kinds of life than scientists thought. Instead of classifying living things based on outward appearance, scientists can categorize them ...