This is a work in progress... please bear with me, come back and watch it grow? Send constructive suggestions?

The role of those organisms which can make their own food by photosynthesis is absolutely critical to every aspect of biology. I believe that a group should be set aside for them. It is called "the plants". And it does not include, for instance, mushrooms.

Since we were small children, we've used the term "animals", and, in general, I feel no need to change our use of that term.

When I was in school, the rule was "All living things are Plants or Animals". (There was no good reason to capitalize either, but that was what people did back then.) That is a pretty flawed system, I believe. Mushrooms can't make their own food, so they shouldn't be lumped with the things that do. But I wouldn't call them animals, either. Would you?

When I was teaching biology in schools, we used the following scheme....

All living things are in one of the following categories....

• Plants
• Animals
• Fungi (mushrooms, etc.)
• Bacteria
• Viruses

Today, with the new insights that DNA studies have given us, it turns out that the above isn't perfect, either. But for the purposes of the Flat Earth Academy, I am going to suggest that you use that "out-dated" system of dividing up all living things for the purposes of studying Life (over, under, in... and...) On Earth. (Thank you, Sir David, for your many magnificent series.)

If you return to the "Groups" section of the main page for Biology, you will get the same list, but with links enabled to the sub-pages for each group.

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