Year 9 Notes on Classification

CHARACTERISTICS AND CLASSIFICATION OF LIVING ORGANISMS
If you look around you, you can probably see a number of living and non-living things. It is usually easy
to tell which are alive and which are not. People, for example, are obviously alive because they move
around. Plants are obviously alive because they grow.
Characteristics of living organisms include; Movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth,
reproduction, excretion and nutrition.
8. COMPETITION: Living things tend to struggle for the basic things of life in order to
survive. Hence, they compete for food, water, light, mates and space.
9. ADAPTATION: To survive, every organism possesses ability to get used to change in
its environment.
In addition, all living organisms contain nucleic acids (DNA) and

have the ability to control their internal conditions. Finally, all
living organisms can die.
Living organisms are classified into 5 groups, each of which has certain
characteristics you need to know
Plants:
1. Multicellular organisms
2. Cells contain chloroplasts and are able to carry out photosynthesis
3. Cells have cellulose cell walls
4. They store carbohydrates as starch or sucrose.
Examples include flowering plants, such as a cereal (e.g. maize) and a

herbaceous legume (e.g. peas or beans).
Animals:
1. Multicellular organisms
2. Cells do not contain chloroplasts and are not able to carry out photosynthesis
3. Cells have no cell walls

4. They have a nervous system
5. They often store carbohydrate as glycogen
Examples include mammals (e.g. humans) and insects (e.g. housefly).
Fungi:
1. They are saprophytic and feed by excreting digestive enzymes onto food and
absorbing the digested products
2. Cells do not contain chloroplasts and are not able to carry out photosynthesis
3. Cells are joined together to form threads, called hyphae. Hyphae contain
many nuclei, because they are made from many cells.
4. Cell walls are made from chitin (a protein)
5. They store carbohydrates as glycogen.
Examples include Mucor and Yeast (which is single celled).
Bacteria:
1. Made from single cells

2. Cells do not contain a nucleus, but have a small piece of circular
DNA instead (a bacterial chromosome).
3. Some bacteria can carry out rudimentary photosynthesis, but
most are saprophytes
4. They have the structure below (learn it, it comes up!)
Examples include Lactobacillius bulgaricus (a rod-shaped bacterium
used in the production of yoghurt from milk) and Pneumococcus (a
spherical bacterium that causes Pneumonia)
Protoctisista:
Basically, everything that doesn’t fit into the other kingdoms! Most are single celled
organisms which can either;
1. Have animal-like characteristics (e.g. Amoeba)
2. Have plant-like characteristics (e.g. Chlorella)
However, some protoctisis are multicellular (e.g. seaweeds, yes they’re NOT plants!)
Viruses:
1. Much smaller than bacteria. They are not made from cells
2. Totally parasitic and reproduce inside host cells.

3. They infect every type of living cell
4. They have the structure below (learn it, it comes up!)
The Envelope is used to gain entry into host cells.

The Capsid is a protein coat and is used to protect the genetic information and
give the virus structure
The DNA or RNA (a different type of nucleic acid) contain the code for building
new viruses.
Examples include the Tobacco Mosaic Virus and the Influenza virus (which
causes ‘flu).
Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals.
Details of each group are given in the table below. You only need to be able to describe visible external
features, but other details can be helpful.
Phylum Arthropods
There are more arthropods than any other group of animals, so they are divided
into classes:
Insects, Crustaceans, Arachnids and Myriapods.
4 classes of Arthropods
1. Insects
Insects are a very successful group, due to their exoskeleton and tracheae,
which are very good at stopping water from evaporating from insects’ body, so
they can live in very dry places.
2. Crustaceans
These are the crabs, lobsters and woodlice. They breath through gills, so most of them live in
wet places and many are aquatic.
3. Arachnids
These are spiders, ticks and scorpions. They are land-dwelling organisms.
4. Myriapods
These are the centipedes and millipedes.
Other groups of invertebrates
Details about some more phyla of invertebrates:
Annelids, Nematodes, Molluscs.
1. Phylum Annelids
Annelids are worms, with bodies made up of ring-like segments. Most of them
live in water, some like the earthworm live in moist soil.
2. Phylum Nematodes
Nematodes are worms, but unlike annelids their bodies are not divided into
segments. They are usually white, long and thin. They live in many different
habitats. Many nematodes live in the soil.
3. Phylum Molluscs
Molluscs are soft-bodies animals, sometimes with a shell (snails) or without (slugs).

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CHARACTERISTICS AND CLASSIFICATION OF LIVING ORGANISMS

In addition, all living organisms contain nucleic acids (DNA) and

Examples include flowering plants, such as a cereal (e.g. maize) and a

3. Cells have no cell walls

1. Made from single cells

2. Have plant-like characteristics (e.g. Chlorella)

2. Totally parasitic and reproduce inside host cells.

The Envelope is used to gain entry into host cells.

Insects, Crustaceans, Arachnids and Myriapods.

Annelids, Nematodes, Molluscs.

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