In
biology,
kingdom (
latin:
regnum, pl.
regna) is the second highest
taxonomic rank below
domain. Kingdoms are divided into smaller groups called
phyla. Traditionally, textbooks from the
United States used a system of six kingdoms (
Animalia,
Plantae,
Fungi,
Protista,
Archaea/
Archaeabacteria, and
Bacteria/
Eubacteria) while textbooks in Great Britain, India, Australia, Latin America and other countries used five kingdoms (Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista and
Monera). Some recent classifications based on modern
cladistics have explicitly abandoned the term "kingdom", noting that the traditional kingdoms are not
monophyletic, i.e., do not consist of all the descendants of a common ancestor.