Some protists are more closely related to animals, plants, or fungi than they are to each other. What does this suggest about the classification used for members in this kingdom?

Question

I’m a little stuck with this question... we learned about protists today, and i’m not sure how to answer this question.

Answer 1

Hi Holly,

This is a pretty vague question they gave you, but biologists do group protists into one of three categories: "plant like," "animal like," and "fungus like," as opposed to other organisms, who tend to be classified within their species in relation to other members of that species. With these being the three main groups of protists, and all of those keywords being mentioned in the question, I think this is probably what they're fishing for.

Hope this helps!

-H. Morrow

Answer 2

It suggests that the Protista is a catch-all kingdom. A polyphyletic group. Polyphyletic groups are groups that do not include the common ancestor of all the members. So in the Protista you see things like algae (protists) being more closely related to plants than to other protists.