BIOLOGY: The Variety of Life

BIOLOGY: The Variety of Life

1. CHARACTERISTICS OF LIVING ORGANISMS

   • NUTRITION
     • The taking in of nutrients which are organic substances and mineral ions, containing raw materials or energy for growth and tissue repair, absorbing and assimilating them.
   • EXCRETION
     • The removal from organisms of toxic materials, the waste products of metabolism (chemical reactions in cells including respiration) and substances in excess of requirements.
   • RESPIRATION
     • The chemical reactions that break down nutrient molecules in living cells to release energy.
   • SENSITIVITY
     • The ability to detect or sense changes in the environment (stimuli) and to make responses.
   • REPRODUCTION
     • The processes that make more of the same kind of organism.
   • GROWTH
     • A permanent increase in size and dry mass by an increase in cell number or cell size or both
   • MOVEMENT
     • An action by an organism or part of an organism causing a change of position or place.

2. BINOMIAL SYSTEM

   • Naming species as a system in which the scientific name of an organism is made up of two parts showing the GENUS and SPECIES.

3. VERTEBRATES

   • BONEY FISH
     • Fins, scales, gills, external fertilisation.
     • Herring (sea), pike (freshwater).
   • AMPHIBIANS
     • Thin, moist skin, breathe through skin, small lungs, external fertilisation, aquatic larvae.
     • Frog, newt.
   • REPTILES
     • Hard scales, lungs, internal fertilisation, soft-shelled eggs.
     • Crocodiles, snakes, lizards.
   • BIRDS
     • Feathers, beaks, wings, lungs, internal fertilisation, hard-shelled eggs.
     • Stork, eagle, penguin.
   • MAMMALS
     • Hair/fur, lungs, internal fertilisation, feed young with milk from mammary glands, viviparous (offspring kept inside female's body and fed through placenta).
     • Blue whale, bats, humans, lions.

4. CLASSIFICATION GROUPS

   • Kingdom
     • Phylum
       • Class
         • Order
           • Family
             • Genus
               • Species