Characteristics & classification of living organisms Flashcards
Movement or Locomotion
an action by an organism or part of an organism causing a change of position or place
Respiration
chemical reactions in living organisms that break down nutrient molecules and release energy for metabolism
Sensitivity or Irritability
the ability to detect or sense stimuli in the internal or external environment and to make appropriate responses
Growth
permanent increase in size and dry mass by an increase in cell size or cell number or both
Reproduction
the process that makes more of the same kind of organism
Excretion
the removal of toxic materials , waste products of metabolism and substances in excess of requirements
Nutrition
taking in nutrients which are organic substances and mineral ions to be used in growth, tissue repair, development and production of energy
Stimulus
the change in the internal or external environment such as HEAT or PAIN or LIGHT…..
Dry mass
mass of an organism after the removal of its water content
How to prepare dry mass
- Heat gently in an oven or an incubator at a low temperature (about 80 celcius degree)
- After a suitable period of time, leave it to cool and weigh it
- Repeat heating and reweigh until to successive weights become equal to make sure it has lost all of its water content.
Classification
Sorting living organisms into groups according to shared features in Morphology and Anatomy
Morphology
External features
Anatomy
Study of internal structure of living organisms
Classification groups
- Kingdom
- Phylum
- Class
- Order
- Family
- Genus
- Species
To make it easy
Keep Plate Clean Or Family Gets Sick
Species
A group of organisms that can reproduce and produce fertile offspring
Importance of classification
- To facilitate the study and identification of living organisms
- Aims to reflect evolutionary relationships
Binomial System
Giving each organism a name of two words
- the first represents Genus and begins with Capital letter
- the second name represents Species and begins with Small letter
- the name is written in LATIN in italics or underlined
Homo Sapiens
- Homo : Genus
- Sapiens : Species
Binomial system depends on
- Morphology
- Anatomy
- DNA
- Protein
The kingdoms
- kingdom prokaryotae or bacteria
- kingdom protoctista
- kingdom fungi
- kingdom plant
- kingdom animal
kingdom prokaryotae
- no nucleus
- no organelles except ribosomes
- ribosomes smaller than other kingdoms
- circular DNA not associated with protein
- circular rings of DNA called plasmids
- covered with slime capsule for protection
- cell wall made of murein (protein and carbohydrate)
- cytoplasm contains food in form of glycogen and lipids
- may have flagella used in movement
- may contain chlorophyll
- reproduce by simple binary fission
Effect of temperature
- in high temp many types can secrete thick coat around themselves forming spores to withstand high temp
- in very low temp activities of bacteria slows down but are not killed
kingdom protoctista
involve unicellular animals (known as protozoa) and multicellular organisms such as seaweeds
- cells contain nucleus
- some have cell wall and chloroplasts known as algae