Chapter 1 - Characteristics and classification of living things

1. Classification
of living things

2. Characteristics of living things
 Movement
 Respiration
 Sensitivity/Irritability
 Growth
 Reproduction
 Excretion
 Nutrition
 Control their internal
conditions.

3. characteristic Definition
Movement The ability to change position of part or all the body
Respiration The break down of food molecules inside living cells to
release energy
Sensitivity The ability to sense and respond to changes in the internal or
external environment.
Growth The permanent increase in (dry) mass, size and/or number of
cells.
Reproduction The ability to produce organisms of the same kind.
Excretion The removal of metabolic wastes, toxic molecules and
substances in excess of requirement from the body
Nutrition Taking in substances needed for growth, respiration and
repair.

4. Why do we need to classify
living things?
 There are over 1.4 million different species of
discovered organisms on earth. We classify
them to make studying them easier.
 Organisms are divided into five large groups
called kingdoms.

5. kingdoms
animals plants fungi protoctists Bacteria
Eukaryotic organisms Prokaryotic
organisms

6. Animals

7. Plants

8. Bacteria

9. Fungi
Yeast
Mucor

10. Protoctists
Amoeba
Euglena
Paramecium
Chlorella
Plasmodium

11.  We still find that in each group there may be
organisms that are very different such as ants and
giraffes in the animal kingdom.
 That is why each kingdom is divides into smaller groups
called phyla (singular: phylum).
 Each phylum is divided into several classes, then a class is
divide into orders, then family, then genus and finally the
smallest group is called species.
 Kingdom>phylum>class>order>family>genus>species.
 Try to remember them using this sentence:
 King Philip cut oranges for good students.

12. Animal kingdom
 Animals are either vertebrates (have a back
bone) or invertebrate (without a back bone).
 Vertebrates are divided into five classes.

13. vertebrates
Fish Amphibians
Reptiles
Bird
s
Mammals

16. Compound
eyes help
some
arthropods to
see in low
light
intensities
and can easily
spot
movement.

17. Non-Flowering plants
 Ferns reproduce by spores
 Produce flowers to make seeds.
 Monocotyledons
 Dicotyledons
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Flowering plants

18. monocotyledons
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19. Dicotyledons
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20. Point of
comparison
Monocotyledons
e.g. cereals
Dicotyledons
e.g. herbaceous legumes
Cotyledons One Two
Leaves Long, narrow with parallel
veins
Short, broad with
networked/branched
veins
Roots Fibrous root Tap root
Flower parts Arranged in groups of
three
Arranged in groups of 4,
or 5

21. DNA code
 Scientists used to classify organisms according to
their morphology (external structure) and anatomy
(internal structure).
 A new way to put organisms into groups is by
comparing their codes on the DNA.
 Humans share the same 99.5% of their DNA, the
remaining 0.5% causes the variation we see in
humans. Humans and Chimpanzees share the
same 98.8% of their DNA.
 DNA could also be used to make links between an
organism and its ancestor.
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