CHAPTER 1: THE LIVING WORLD

Biology is a branch of science that deals with the study of living organisms and
their processes. There is great diversity of living beings on this planet. The
difference between the living beings and non-living matter was perceived by early
man. Detailed system of identification, nomenclature began later. Diverse form of
living organisms are found in different types of habitats like, Ocean, fresh water
bodies, forest, cold mountains, deserts, hot water springs, etc…
Growth, reproduction, ability to sense environment and mount a suitable
response come to our mind immediately as unique features of living organisms.
Other features like metabolism, ability to self replicate, self-organise, interact and
emergence.
Properties of living organisms:
• Cellular organization
• Growth
• Reproduction
• Metabolism
• Response to stimuli (irritability)
Cellular organization: Cellular organization of the body is the defining feature of
life forms. All living organisms are made up of cells (Unicellular or multicellular).
Properties of tissues are not present in the constituent cells but arise as a result
of interactions among the constituent cells.
Similarly, properties of cellular organelles are not present in the molecular
constituents of the organelle but arise as a result of interactions among the
molecular components comprising the organelle.
These interactions results in emergent properties at a higher level of organisation.
This phenomenon is true in the hierarchy of organisational complexity at all levels.
Molecules cells tissues
Growth: Growth is an important feature of living beings. Increase in mass, volume,
size and increase in number of individuals are the characteristics of growth. It is a
permanent and irreversible process.
Ø A multicellular organism grows by cell division.
Ø In plants, this growth by cell division occurs continuously throughout their life
span.
Ø In animals, this growth is seen only up to a certain age. However, cell division
occurs in certain tissues to replace lost cells.
Ø Unicellular organisms grow by cell division. One can easily observe this in in vitro
cultures by simply counting the number of cells under the microscope.
Ø In majority of higher animals and plants, growth and reproduction are mutually
exclusive events. One must remember that increase in body mass is considered as
growth.
Ø Non-living objects also grow if we take increase in body mass as a criterion for
growth. Mountains, boulders and sand mounds do grow. However, this kind of
growth exhibited by non-living objects is by accumulation of material on the
surface. In living organisms, growth is from inside. Growth, therefore, cannot be
taken as a defining property of living organisms.
Reproduction: It is an another characteristic of living organisms.
Ø In multicellular organisms, reproduction refers to the production of progeny
possessing features more or less similar to those of parents.
Ø Fungi multiply and spread easily due to the millions of asexual spores they
produce.
Ø In lower organisms like yeast and hydra, we observe budding. In Planaria (flat
worms), we observe true regeneration, i.e., a fragmented organism regenerates the
lost part of its body and becomes a new organism.
Ø The fungi, the filamentous algae, the protonema of mosses, all easily multiply by
fragmentation. When it comes to unicellular organisms like bacteria, unicellular
algae or Amoeba, reproduction is synonymous with growth, i.e., increase in
number of cells.
Ø Growth as equivalent to increase in cell number or mass. Hence, in single-celled
organisms, the terms growth and reproduction used synonymously.
Ø Further, there are many organisms which do not reproduce (mules, sterile worker
bees, infertile human couples, etc…). Hence, reproduction also cannot be an all-
inclusive defining characteristic of living organisms.
Metabolism: Another characteristic of life is metabolism.
Ø All living organisms are made of chemicals. These chemicals, small and big,
belonging to various classes, sizes, functions, etc… are constantly being made and
changed into some other biomolecules. These conversions are chemical reactions
or metabolic reactions.
Ø There are thousands of metabolic reactions occurring simultaneously inside all
living organism, be they unicellular or multicellular.
Ø All plants, animals, fungi and microbes exhibit metabolism. The sum total of all
the chemical reactions occurring in our body is metabolism.
Ø No non-living object exhibits metabolism. Metabolic reactions can be demonstrated
outside the body in cell-free systems. An isolated metabolic reaction(s) outside the
body of an organism performed in a test tube is neither living nor non-living.
Ø Hence, while metabolism is a defining feature of all living organisms without
exception, isolated metabolic reactions in vitro are not living things but surely
living reactions. Hence, cellular organisation of the body is the defining feature of
life forms.
Response to external stimuli:
Ø The most obvious and technically complicated feature of all living organisms is this
ability to sense their surroundings or environment and respond to these
environmental stimuli which could be physical, chemical or biological.
Ø We sense our environment through our sense organs. Plants respond to external
factors like light. water, temperature, other organisms, pollutants, etc…
Ø All organisms, from the prokaryotes to the most complex eukaryotes can sense and
respond to environmental cues. Photoperiod affects reproduction in seasonal
breeders, both plants and animals
Ø All organisms handle chemicals entering their bodies. All organisms therefore, are
'aware’ of their surroundings.
Ø Human being is the only organism who is aware of himself, ie, has self-
consciousness. Consciousness therefore, becomes the defining property of living
organisms.
Ø Living organisms are self-replicating evolving and self-regulating interactive
systems capable of responding to external stimuli.
Ø Biology is the story of life on earth. Biology is the story of evolution of living
organisms on earth. All living organisms- present, past and future, are linked to
one another by the sharing of the common genetic material, but to varying degrees.
DIVERSITY IN THE LIVING WORLD
The living world comprises an amazing diversity of living organisms.
The number of species that are known and described range between 1.7-1.8
million. This refers to biodiversity or the number and types of organisms present
on earth.
Every year several new species are described and added to the list. Since the study
of all organisms is nearly impossible, they are classified into groups for convenient
study.
Systematics: Study of different kinds of organisms and their diversities, but also
the relationships among them. This branch of study was referred to as
systematics.
The word systematics is derived from the Latin word 'systema' which means
systematic arrangement of organisms. Linnaeus used Systema Naturae
identification title of his publication. The scope of systematics was later enlarged
to include nomenclature and classification. Systematics takes into account
evolutionary relationships between organisms.
Hence, based on characteristics, all living organisms can be classified into different
taxa. This process of classification is taxonomy.
Process taxonomy includes, a) Characterisation
b) Identification.
c) Classification
d) Nomenclature

Characterisation: It is the understanding of external and internal structure, along

with the structure of cell, development process and ecological information of an
organism.
Identification: Obviously, nomenclature or naming is only possible when the
organism is described correctly and we know to what organism the name is
attached to. This is identification.
In order to facilitate the study, number of scientists have established procedures
to assign a scientific name to each known organism.
Classification: Name of the author appears after the specific epithet, i.e., at the
end of the biological name and is written in an abbreviated form (Ex: Mangifera
indica Linn. It indicates that this species was first described by Linnaeus). Since it
is nearly impossible to study all the living organisms. The process of grouping or
classifying the organisms into different categories is called classification OR
It is the process by which living organism is grouped into convenient categories
based on some easily observable characters.
Nomenclature: Biologists follow universally accepted principles to provide
scientific names to known organisms.
Each name has two components - the Generic name and the specific epithet.
This system of providing a name with two components is called Binomial
nomenclature.
This naming system given by Carolus Linnaeus is being practised by biologists all
over the world. This naming system using a two words format was found
convenient. The scientific name of mango is written as Mangifera indica. In this
name Mangifera represents the genus while indica, is a particular species, or a
specific epithet.
Hence, there is a need to standardise the naming of living organisms such that
a particular organism is known by the same name all over the world. This process
is called nomenclature.
For plants, scientific names are based on agreed principles and criteria, which are
provided in International Code for Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) and for animals
it is, International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN.)
Universal rules of nomenclature are as follows:
1. Biological names are generally in Latin and written in italics. They are
Latinised or derived from Latin irrespective of their origin.
2. The first word in a biological name represents the genus while the second
component denotes the specific epithet.
3. Both the words in a biological name, when handwritten, are separately
underlined, or printed in italics to indicate their Latin origin.
4. The first word denoting the genus starts with a capital letter while the
specific epithet starts with a small letter. It can be illustrated with the
example of Mangifera indica.
TAXONOMIC CATEGORIES
Classification is not a single step process but involves hierarchy of steps in which
each step represents a rank or category.
Since the category is a part of overall taxonomic arrangement, it is called the
taxonomic category and all categories together constitute the taxonomic
hierarchy.
Each category, referred to as any unit of classification and it represents a rank and
is commonly termed as taxon (pl.: taxa).
Taxonomical studies of all known organisms have led to the development of
common categories such as kingdom, phylum or division (for plants), class,
order, family, genus and species.
Species: Taxonomic studies consider a group of individual organisms with
fundamental similarities as a species.
One species from the other closely related species are distinguished based on the
distinct morphological differences
In Mangifera indica, Solanum tuberosum (potato) and Panthera leo (lion) all the
three names, indica, tuberosum and leo, represent the specific epithets, while the
first words Mangifera, Solanum and Panthera a are genera and represents another
higher level of taxon or category.
Each genus may have one or more than one specific epithet representing different
organisms, but having morphological similarities. For example. Panthers has
another specific epithet called tigris and Solanum includes species like nigrum and
melongena. Human beings belong to the species sapiens which is grouped in the
genus Homo. The scientific name thus, for human being, is written as Homo
sapiens.
Genus: Genus comprises a group of related species which has more characters in
common in comparison to species of other genera. Genera are aggregates of closely
related species.
For example, potato and brinjal are two different species but both belong to the
genus Solanum. Lion (Panthera leo), leopard (P. pardus) and tiger (P. tigris) with
several common features, are all species of the genus Panthera.
This genus differs from another genus Felis which includes cats.
Family: The next category, Family, has a group of related genera with still less
number of similarities as compared to genus and species. Families are
characterised on the basis of both vegetative and reproductive features of plant
species.
Among plants for example, three different genera Solanum, Petunia and Datura
are placed in the family Solanaceae.
Among animals for example, genus Panthera, comprising lion, tiger, leopard is put
along with genus, Felis (cats) in the family Felidae.
Similarly, if you observe the features of a cat and a dog, you will find some
similarities and some differences as well. They are separated into two different
families-Felidae and Canidae, respectively.
Order: Order being a higher category, is the assemblage of families which exhibit
a few similar characters. The similar characters are less in number as compared
to different genera included in a family.
Ex: Plant families like Convolvulaceae, Solanaceae are included in the order
Polymoniales mainly based on the floral characters. The animal order, Carnivora,
includes families like Felidae and Canidae.
Class: This category includes related orders. For example, order Primata
comprising monkey, gorilla and gibbon is placed in class Mammalia along with
order Carnivora that includes animals like tiger, cat and dog. Class Mammalia has
other orders also.
Phylum: Classes comprising animals like fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds along
with mammals constitute the next higher category called Phylum. All these, based
on the common features like presence of notochord and dorsal hollow neural
system, are included in phylum Chordata.
In case of plants, classes with a few similar characters are assigned to a higher
category called Division
Kingdom: All animals belonging to various phyla are assigned to the highest
category called Kingdom Animalia in the classification system of animals. The
Kingdom Plantae comprises all plants from various divisions. Henceforth, we will
refer to these two groups as animal and plant kingdoms.
Ex:
Common Biological Genus Family Order Class Phylum/ Kingdom
Kingdom name name Division
Phylum/ Man Homo Homo Hominidae Primata Mammalia Chordata Animalia
Division sapiens
Mango Mangifera Mangifera Anacardiaceae Sapindales Dicotyledonae Angiospermae Plantae
Class indica
Order Housefly Musca Musca Muscidae Diptera Insecta Arthropoda Animalia
Family domestica
Wheat Triticum Triticum Poaceae Poales Monocotyledonae Angiospermae Plantae
Genus aestivum
Species
TAXONOMICAL AIDS
Taxonomic studies of various species of plants, animals and other organisms are
useful in agriculture, forestry, industry and in general in knowing our bio-
resources and their diversity.
These studies would require correct classification and identification of organisms.
Identification of organisms requires intensive laboratory and field studies. The
collection of actual specimens of plant and animal species is essential and is the
prime source of taxonomic studies. These are also fundamental to studies and
essential for training in systematics.
 Biologists have established certain procedures and techniques to store and
preserve the information as well as the specimens. The important taxonomical aids
are,
a) Herbarium b) Botanical Gardens c) Museum d) Zoological Parks e) Key
Herbarium: Herbarium is a store house of collected plant specimens that are dried,
pressed and preserved on sheets and arranged according to a universally accepted
system of classification. These specimens, along with their descriptions on
herbarium sheets, become a store house or repository for future use.
The herbarium sheets also carry a label providing information about date and place
of collection,
English, local and botanical names, family, collector's name, etc... Herbaria also
serve as quick referral systems in taxonomical studies.
Botanical Gardens: These specialised gardens have collections of living plants for
reference. Plant species these gardens are grown for identification purposes and
each plant is labelled indicating its botanical scientific name and its family.
The famous botanical gardens are at Kew (England), Indian Botanical Garden,
Howrah (India) and at National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow (India).
Museum: Biological museums are generally set up in educational institutes such
as schools and colleges.
Museums have collections of preserved plant and animal specimens for study and
reference Specimens are preserved in the containers or jars in preservative
solutions
Plant and animal specimens may also be preserved as dry specimens.
Insects are preserved in insect boxes after collecting, killing and pinning.
Larger animals like birds and mammals are usually stuffed and preserved.
Museums often have collections of skeletons of animals too.
Zoological Parks: These are the places where wild animals are kept in protected
environments under human care and which enable us to learn about their food
habits and behaviour.
All animals in a zoo are provided, as far as possible, the conditions similar to their
natural habitats. Children love visiting these parks, commonly called Zoos.
Key: Key is another taxonomical aid used for identification of plants and animals
based on the similarities and dissimilarities. The keys are based on the contrasting
characters generally in a pair called couplet. It represents the choice made between
two opposite options. This results in acceptance of only one and rejection of the
other. Each statement in the key is called a lead
Separate taxonomic keys are required for each taxonomic category such as family,
genus and species for identification purposes. Keys are generally analytical in
nature.
Flora, manuals, monographs and catalogues: These are some other means of
recording descriptions. They also help in correct identification.
Flora contains the actual account of habitat and distribution of plants of a given
area. These provide the index to the plant species found in a particular area.
Manuals are useful in providing information for identification of names of species
found in an area.
Monographs contain information on any one taxon.