How to Group Plants and Animals

Class 6 Science · Chapter 2: Diversity in the Living World · NCERT Curiosity section 2.2

Learn

Meher's library groups books by subject so they are easy to find. Scientists do the same with living things: they group them by features they share, like the kind of stem, the number of legs, or where they live.

Animals can be grouped by how many legs they have: none (snake, earthworm), two (hen, pigeon), four (goat, dog), six (ant, butterfly) or eight (spider). Or by how they move: walk, crawl, fly, swim, hop.

The same animals can go into different groups depending on the feature we choose. A duck walks, swims and flies! So we must say which feature we are using. Grouping by where they live: land, water, or both (frog, turtle).

Grouping helps us study the huge diversity of life, remember features, and see how living things are related. Animals with similar features often share a lot more: all birds have feathers, beaks and lay eggs.

Explore: group the animals in two different ways.

1. Group by where they live.
2. Now group these animals by their number of legs.

Remember

• We group living things by features they share.
• The same living thing can belong to different groups for different features.

Quick check

Why must we say which feature we are using when we group animals?

1. The same animal can fit different groups for different features
2. Animals change every day
3. Only one grouping is ever possible
4. Features do not matter

Think about it

Think of a way to group these animals into two groups: crow, cow, bat, cat, sparrow, goat. Is there more than one way?

Practice

Practise with fresh questions at three levels (easy, medium, hard), some answered hands-on, with hints and worked answers. Get 4 of your last 5 right to finish the topic.