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The Living World - Short Notes

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Maya Kumari
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42 views

The Living World - Short Notes

Uploaded by

Maya Kumari
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Living World

SHORT NOTES

Characteristic Feature of Living Organisms ™ Biologists have developed a set of rules and principles
™ Growth, reproduction, metabolism, and the ability to for the identification, classification, nomenclature, and
sense their environment are thought to be the distinguishing characterization of the vast diversity of organisms. This field
characteristics of living things. of study is referred to as taxonomy.
Growth ™ Identification: Correct description of organism.
™ Increase in mass and number of individuals are twin ™ Nomenclature: Scientific naming → Binomial nomenclature.
characteristics of growth and can be exhibited by both living ™ Classification: Give a particular position of an organism in
(intrinsic growth) as well as non-living things (extrinsic a particular taxa.
growth). Therefore, growth cannot be considered a defining ™ ICBN → International Code for Botanical Nomenclature.
characteristic of living things.
™ ICZN → International Code for Zoological Nomenclature.
™ Growth in plant is localised & indefinite (throughout life).
™ Binomial nomenclature was given by Carolus Linnaeus.
™ Growth in animal is diffused and definite (up to a limit).
It contains name with two components: Generic name and
Reproduction Specific epithet.
™ It is not a characteristic feature of organisms, like mules, ™ Systematics: This branch of study focussed on determining
sterile worker bees etc., are unable to reproduce. Therefore,
the evolutionary relationships between organisms.
reproduction is also not a defining property of living things.
Metabolism and Cellular Organisation Taxonomic Categories
™ Metabolism → Catabolism + Anabolism. Metabolism is the ™ To form a taxonomic category, the basic requirement is
some of all catabolic and anabolic reactions in our body. the knowledge of characters of an organism or group of
™ Metabolic reaction occur inside the cell, it means cellular organisms.
organization is strictly required for metabolism to define the ™ Taxonomic categories include, kingdom, phylum or division
feature.
(for plants), class, order, family, genus and species.
™ No non-living thing exhibits metabolism, though metabolic
reactions can be demonstrated in - vitro. ™ All categories together constitute the taxonomic hierarchy.
™ These isolated metabolic reactions are not living entities but ™ Each category referred to as a unit of classification, infact,
definitely living reactions. represent a rank and as commonly called as taxon.
™ Therefore, metabolism and cellular organization is a  Species: Group of individual with fundamental
characteristic and defining feature of all living organisms. similarities e.g., nigrum, tigris.
Consciousness  Genus: Group of closely related species e.g., Mangifera.
™ The state of being aware of what is around you and able to  Family: Group of related genus e.g., Solanaceae.
sense environment.  Order: Assemblage of families which exhibit a few

™ From prokaryotes to the most complex eukaryotes, all similar characteristics e.g., Order Polymoniales includes
organisms can sense environmental stimuli and react to them. families like Convolvulaceae and Solanaceae.
 Class: Group of related orders e.g., Dicotyledonae,
™ Therefore, consciousness becomes the defining feature of
Mammalia.
living things.
 Phylum/Division: Related plant classes come in a
Diversity in the Living World division but in case of animals, related classes become a
part of phylum e.g., Chordata.
™ Basis of modern taxonomic studies; external & internal
 Kingdom: Group of similar phyla or divisions e.g.,
structure, ecological information, cell structure and
Animalia and Plantae.
development process.

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