Why did the five-kingdom system of classification fall out of favor? a. There were too few monerans to justify their classification at the kingdom level. b. It did not accurately represent the evolutionary relationships among organisms. c. It was more complex than the original two-kingdom system of Linnaeus, which was found to be more useful. d. Distinguishing between plants and fungi as well as animals and protists proved too difficult.
Biology · High School · Tue Nov 03 2020
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The five-kingdom system of classification, which was proposed by Robert Whittaker in 1969, fell out of favor primarily because it did not accurately represent the evolutionary relationships among organisms. Therefore, the correct answer is b. It did not accurately represent the evolutionary relationships among organisms. As biological sciences advanced, especially with the advent of molecular techniques and genetic sequencing, it became apparent that the relationships and diversities among life forms were more complex than the five-kingdom model could accommodate. The three-domain system proposed by Carl Woese, which is based on genetic relationships and divides life into Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryota, is now more widely accepted because it reflects these evolutionary relationships more accurately.