The first four kingdoms-unicellular life (bacteria)

Continuing on with our marine biology study.  Here is what we learned.

picture from the web

Kingdom Monera-this kingdom, consists of unicellular (Prokaryotic-single-cell) life, represents the least complex organism-i.e. these organisms are the most simplistic form of life and may be related to other lifeforms from the distant past.

These single-celled forms of life can act like plants or animals. There are two groups (phyla) which are autotrophs (which are able to create their own food) and heterotrophs (which cannot create their own food).  The heterotrophs depend on the autotrophs.  Bacteria are placed in the Monera Kingdom as they are considered the oldest lifeforms on earth by (many) scientists.

Factoids about bacteria that you probably wish you did not know.

~bacteria are alive!
~Approximately one-third of all bottled drinking water (in the USA) are contaminated with bacteria.
~Did you know there is more bacteria in your mouth than there are people in the world?  Even if you have good oral hygiene, there are still anywhere between 1,000 to 100,000 bacteria on each tooth.
~Did you know there are 1,458 species of new bacteria in your bellybutton?
~bacteria double their numbers every 20 minutes.
~one drop of water can contain as many as 50,000 million bacteria.

Pretty gross and interesting.

Next up, Kingdom Protista.

picture from the web

Read more about bacteria here and here.