Protist both microbial eukaryotes and macroscopic organisms that do not fit into the other traditional kingdoms. In cladistic systems (classifications based on common ancestry), there are no equivalents to the taxa Protista or Protoctista, both terms referring to a paraphyletic group that spans the entire eukaryotic tree of life. In cladistic classification, the contents of Protista are distributed among various "supergroups" (SAR, such as protozoa and some algae, Archaeplastida, such as land plants and some algae, Excavata, which are a group of unicellular organisms, and Opisthokonta, such as animals and fungi, etc.). "Protista", <nowiki>"Protoctista"</nowiki> and "Protozoa" are considered obsolete. However, the
Cavalier-Smith's system of classification had been subdivided into twelve phyla: The protozoa were originally classified as members of the animal kingdom. Now they are classified as multiple separate groups. Zoology is the study of animals while botany is the study of plants. While zoologists divided the animal kingdom into phyla, botanists carved the plant kingdom into "divisions". By 1940, five divisions were recognized: Fungi and bacteria were included within the plant division thallophyta. Today, bacteria are no longer classified as plants and fungi are known to be more closely related to animals than to plants. By mid-nineteenth century, microscopic organisms were generally classified into