Characteristic of living

Chapter #1
organisms
Objectives
 What is Biology?
 What is life?
 What are the characteristics of living
organism?
 What is classification and why living
organisms are classified?
 What is Biology?

The word biology is derived from two

Greek words
Bios  meaning life
Logos meaning study, reasoning

The study of life is called Biology

What is life……………?

A set of characteristic/traits, that are

present in all the living things but not in
nonliving.
 All living things have to perform seven life
processes.
Do you know what they are……..?

Movement
MRS-GREN Respiration
Sensitivity
Growth
If something does not perform all Reproduction
of the seven life processes then it Excretion
is not alive. Nutrition
 1. Movement
Animal Movement
Why do animals move?
To find food, water, shelter, to hide from
predators and to reproduce.
 1. Do plants move?

•Yes, plants do move, but

very slowly compared to
most animals.

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2. Why do plants move?
•Plants move towards sunlight
which they need to make food.

•Some flowers close during the

night.

•Roots will move towards water

and gravity.
 2. Respiration
Respiration
Respiration is the process in which the cells of an organism
obtain energy by combining oxygen and glucose, resulting
in the release of carbon dioxide, water, and ATP (energy).

Glucose + Oxygen  ENERGY + Carbon dioxide + Water

 3. Sensitivity
Sensitivity is the ability of living things to detect changes
in their surroundings and respond to these changes.
Humans have five senses; do you know what they
are?

Touch Skin
Taste Tongue Which organs are
Smell Nose associated with these
senses?
Sight Eyes
Hearing Ears

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 Sensitivity in Plants

Venus flytrap plant

Shameplant
 4. Growth

Animals grow until they

reach adulthood and then
stop growing.

Plants continue to grow

throughout their lives.
 5. Reproduction
All organisms need to reproduce. Reproduction is the
making of new organisms. If organisms did not reproduce,
then once those organisms died there would be no more of
the species left.
 5. Reproduction
 Some animals reproduce by laying
eggs.

Example: Birds

 Some animals reproduce by giving birth to live young.

Example: Mammals
 Plant Reproduction
Some plants reproduce using the wind to carry pollen from
one flower to another.

Some plants reproduce

using insects or birds to
carry pollen from one
flower to another.

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 6. Excretion
Excretion is the process where an organism gets rid of
waste products that would otherwise cause it harm.
 7. Nutrition
Nutrition is the obtaining of food to keep an
organism healthy.
 Nutrition
 Carnivores
 Omnivores
 Herbivores

Green plants make their own food using

sunlight, water and carbon dioxide. This
process is called PHOTOSYNTHESIS.

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Additional Characteristics
 When we study the living organism
under the microscope

 They all are made up of cells

Cell contain

• Cytoplasm
• Cell membrane
• DNA
• Ribosome
• Enzymes
Human skin Cells
Chapter #4 Classification

Classification of Living
Organisms
Objectives:

 Classification

 Six Kingdoms of Life.

 Distinct characteristics of each of the six

Kingdoms of Life.

 Characteristics of each Kingdom.

•There are 13 billion known species of organisms

•This is only 5% of all organisms that ever lived!

•New organisms are still being found and

identified everyday

•Classification is the arrangement of organisms

into groups based on their similarities

•Classification is also known as taxonomy.

Taxonomy is a way to classify words into hierarchical
groups
 1.2. Classification
Why do we need to classify living things?
There are about 1.4 million
species of discovered organisms
on the earth;

 We divide them into different

groups to make studying them
easier
 To help understand the
interrelationship between
organisms
1. Physical appearance
• All the organism with similar
phenotype/characteristics are put in one group
e.g. Morphology
Anatomy
2. Using DNA Sequences to help
classification
 Based on the arrangement of DNA Bases (ATCG)
 Modern method of classification of species
The classification system
 Swedish naturalist 1735
 He divided all the different kind of
living things into groups called
species
 12000 species
 Linnaeus classification was based on
same appearance and same behavior

Linnaeus
Classification of Living Organism
More general

KING PHILIP
CAME OVER
FOR GOOD SPAGHETTI

More specific
 Binomial system of classification
• Carl Linnaeus made the scientific naming of
organisms called Linnaeus binomial nomenclature
• Binomial = two names ( consisting two Latin word):
1. The first word is genus and the second word is
species
2. Should be typed as italic or underlined if written
down
3. The first letter of the first word is capitalized
and the second is not
Ex. Zea mays or Zea mays
Zea is genus and mays is species
 Species
The smallest group of organisms
classified which can interbreed with
each other to produce fertile
offspring
 Animal Kingdom
 Characteristics
 Multicellular
 Cells have nucleus but no cell
wall and chloroplast
 Feed on organic substances
made by other living organism
 Plantae Kingdom
Characteristics
 Multicellular
 Cells have nucleus and also contain
cell wall
 Cell wall is made up of cellulose and
often contain cytoplasm
 Prepare their own food by
photosynthesis
Fungus kingdom

Characteristics
 Multicellular
 Have nuclei
 Have cell wall, made of chitin
 Do not have chlorophyll
 Feed by saprophytic or parasitic
nutrition
Edible Nonedible
Mushrooms Mushrooms
 Protista Kingdom
Characteristics:
 Multicellular or Unicellular
 Cells have a nucleus
 Cells may or may not have a chloroplasts
 Some feed by photosynthesis and other feed
on organic substances made by other organisms
 3 groups of Protista:
1. Protozoa / Protista like animal
2. Algae/ Protista like plant
3. Protista like fungus
 Protozoa

Algae Protista like fungus

Animals like Plants like
E. coli bacterium, Salmonella typhi
Viruses
 Viruses
 Viruses are not true living
things
 They can do nothing until
they enter a living cell.
Diseases
 Common cold
 Influenza
 AIDs( HIV)
Scientists do not classify a virus as a living thing. This is
because:

 It does not show all seven processes for life

 when it enters a cell, it changes the way a

cell works so it can make copies of the virus.
Characteristics of Viruses

 Very small (100 times

smaller than bacteria)
 No typical cell structure
 Contain strand of DNA or
RNA
 Surrounded by a protein
coat called Capsid
 The only life process they
can show is the
reproduction inside the
host cell
 1.5. Classifying Animals

Phylum Vertebrates
 Animals with a supporting rod
running along the length of the body

 They have the backbone

(vertebral column)

Vertebrae=the bones that make up the spine

Class Fish
All live in water except for one or two
(mudskipper) which spend short period of time
breathing air
Characteristics
Vertebrate with
scaly skin
Have gills
Have fins
Class Amphibians
Most of the amphibians live on land but they always go back
to the water to breed
Toad, Frogs and Salamanders
Characteristics
 Vertebrates with moist scale-less skin
 Egg laid in the water, Larva ( tadpole) lives
in the water
 Adults often lives on the land
 Larva has gills and Adult has lungs
 Class Reptiles

Snakes, crocodiles, Lizards, turtles and

tortoises
Characteristics
 They are vertebrate with Scaly Skin
 Lay eggs with rubbery shells
 They Don’t need go back to the water for
breeding because their eggs have water
proof shells which stops them from drying out
Class Birds
 Birds lay eggs with hard shells
(like reptiles)
Characteristics
 Vertebrate with feathers
 Forelimbs have become wings
 Lay eggs with hard shells
 Endothermic
 Have Beak
 Heart has four chambers
Class Mammals
Characteristics
Vertebrate with hairs on the body
Have placenta
Young Feed on milk from mammary gland
Endothermic
Have Diaphragm
Heart has four chambers
Have different type of
teeth(Incisors, canines, premolars and molars)
 Phylum Arthropods
 Also known as invertebrates

 They are more successful group, because they have

waterproof exoskeleton that allow them to live in the
dry conditions
 They have many kinds on the earth than other
species
Characteristics
Several pairs of legs
Exoskeleton
 Insects
 They are mainly terrestrial
 Arthropods with three pairs of legs
 Two pairs of wings
 Body is divided into head thorax and abdomen
 Breath through trachea
Most insects reproduce oviparously, i.e. by laying eggs.
The eggs are produced by the female in a pair of ovaries.
At the time of fertilization, the eggs travel along
oviducts to be fertilized by the sperm and are then
expelled from the body ("laid"),
 Crustaceans

Crabs, Lobsters and woodlice

Characteristics
 They breath through gills
 Most of them live in the wet
places
 Arthropods with more than four
pairs of legs
 Breath through Gills
 Fusion of a sperm with an egg,
 Some crustaceans are parthenogenetic;

 That is, they produce eggs that develop

without being fertilized by a sperm.
 Arachnids
Spiders, Ticks and Scorpions
They are land-dwelling
Characteristics
 Arthropod with four pairs of
jointed legs
 Breath through gills

Internal fertilization.
 Myriapods

These are the centipedes and millipedes

Characteristics
Body consist of many segments
Each segment has jointed legs
Fertilization is internal
Centipedes generally have a life span of 4 to 6
years
millipedes live for 1 to 10 years
 PLANTAE KINGDOM

Characteristics:
 Plants are organisms that have cell with the
cell wall made up of Cellulose
 Some parts of the plants are green
green pigment (chlorophyll)
Which absorb energy from sunlight
The plant uses this energy to make glucose using
carbon dioxide and water from the environment.
this process is known as photosynthesis
Ferns
 Fern have leaves called fronds
 They don’t produce flower
 They reproduce by mean of spores produced on
the underside of the fronds
Characteristics
 Plants with roots, stems and leaves
 Have leaves called fronds
 Don’t produce flowers
 Reproduce by spores
 MOSSES
Characteristics:
 Small plants
 Need damp place to live
 They have thin leaves which is don’t
have waterproof covering and no
transport system
 They don’t have true roots, stems
and leaves
 Gymnosperms/Coniferophyta
Characteristics:
 Needle like leaves
 Produce seeds which are formed
inside cones
 Have true roots and stem
 Have water transport and
waterproof leaves
Flowering Plants
They can be tiny or very large
Many trees are flowering plant
Characteristics
 Plants with root, stem, and leaves
 Reproduce sexually by means of
flowers and seeds
 Seeds are produced inside the ovary
in the flower
Flowering plants can be divided
into two main groups
1. Monocotyledonous
2. Dicotyledonous
 Monocotyledonous
Characteristics
 They have only one cotyledon in their seeds
 They usually have the branching root system
 They have leaves in which the veins run parallel to one
another
Dicots or Dicotyledon
 They have two cotyledons in their seeds
 They frequently have tap root system
 Their leaves are often broader than monocots
leaves, and they have network of branching
veins.
Differences monocot and Dicot
 Dichotomous Keys

A dichotomous key is a
method for determining
the identity of something.
 It is like a road map
made of questions with a
yes/no answer.
 Depending on the answer
we will follow one path
or another
Keys are used to identify organisms based on
a series of questions about their features

 Dichotomous means ‘branching into two’

and it leads the user through to the name
of the organism by giving two descriptions
at a time and asking them to choose

Yes No
 Each choice leads the user onto another
two descriptions
 In order to successfully navigate a key,
you need to pick a single organism to
start with and follow the statements
from the beginning until you find the
name
 You then pick another organism and start
at the beginning of the key again,
repeating until all organisms are named