hi everyone welcome to IGCSE study buddy

where you can revise biology topics from

the Cambridge IGCSE syllabus

this video summarizes topic 1

characteristics and classification of

living organisms

biology is the study of living things

which are often called organisms

there are seven characteristics that an

organism must have in order to be

recognized as a living thing

Mrs Green is going to help us with this

Mrs Gren is a mnemonic that may help us

remember the seven characteristics of

living things

m stands for movement

R stands for respiration

s stands for sensitivity

G stands for growth

R stands for reproduction

e stands for excretion

and n stands for nutrition

movement is an action by an organism or

part of an organism causing a change of

position or place

respiration is the chemical reactions in

cells that break down nutrient molecules

and release energy for metabolism

sensitivity is the ability to detect and

respond to changes in the internal or

external environment

growth is a permanent increase in size

and dry Mass

reproduction are the processes that make

more of the same kind of organism

excretion is the removal of the waste

products of metabolism and substances in

excess of requirements

and nutrition is the taking in of

materials for energy growth and

development

let's move on to the concept and users

of classification systems there are

millions of species of organisms on

Earth what is a species a species is

described as a group of organisms that

can reproduce to produce fertile

offspring

these species can be classified into

groups by the features that they share

for example generally all mammals have

hair offer are warm-blooded and give

birth to life Young

next we must know what a binomial system

is the binomial system of naming species

is an internationally agreed system in

which the scientific name of an organism

is made up of two parts showing the

genus and the species A genus is a group

of related species

this system allows the subdivision of

living organisms into smaller groups

the species in these groups have more

and more features in common the most

subdivided they get

in this system the scientific name of an

organism is made up of two parts

starting with the genus which always

starts with a capital letter and

followed by the species starting with a

simple letter when typed binomial names

are always in italics which indicates

they are Latin example homo sapien

let's learn about dichotomous Keys

dichotomous keys are used to identify

organisms based on a series of questions

about their features dichotomous means

branching into two and it helps you

identify the name of an organism by

giving two descriptions at a time and

asking you to choose each choice leads

you onto another two descriptions until

you end up with the name of the

organisms

let's look at an example of how we can

use dichotomous keys this is a simple

question from a past paper where we must

choose the correct answer by navigating

through the dichotomous Keys there's a

picture of an animal given and we may

first read through the descriptions in

one to choose where to go next

the two descriptions are body covered

with scales and body covered with hair

by looking at the picture we can see

that this organism's body is covered

with hair so we must go to three the

descriptions in number three are has

webbed feet or does not have webbed feet

you may notice that the organism has

webbed feet therefore the answer is C

now let's understand what classification

means classification basically means

putting things into groups the main

reason for classifying living things is

to make it easier to study them

classification systems aim to reflect

evolutionary relationships between

species

traditionally organisms were classified

based on the features that they shared

so it was understood that the more

features they shared the more closely

related they were

however this method of using similar

physical features of species to

categorize them has its difficulties and

is not enough
with the advancement of Technology

scientists were able to study DNA

sequences of different species and this

helped to classify organisms using a

more scientific approach

this method showed that the more similar

the base sequences in the DNA of two

species the more closely related those

two species are and the more recent they

are common ancestor is

the first step to classify living things

is to put them into one of five kingdoms

they are animals

plants

fungi

productists

and prokaryotes

let's take a look at animals first the

main features of all animals are they

are multicellular or made of many cells

their cells contain a nucleus but no

cell walls or chloroplasts

and they get their nutrition by eating

other living things

here's a picture of an animal cell as

you can see they have a nucleus cell

membrane mitochondria ribosomes and

cytoplasm

the next Kingdom is plants main features

of all plants are they are multicellular

their cells contain a nucleus

chloroplasts and cell walls made from

cellulose

and they get their nutrition by making

their own food through a process called

photosynthesis

this is a picture of a plant cell you

might notice that in addition to what an

animal cell has a plant cell has a cell

wall and chloroplasts

next let's take a look at the main

features that help to place organisms

into the kingdom of fungi

a mushroom is an example of a fungus

fungi are usually multicellular

cells have nuclei and cell walls are not

made from cellulose

they feed by saprophytic nutrition that

is Undead or decaying material or

parasitic nutrition that is on live

material

here's an illustration of a fungal cell

they have a cell wall but it's not made

of cellulose like in the plant cell

the main features of organisms in the

productist kingdom are most are

unicellular but some are multicellular

all have a nucleus some may have cell

walls and chloroplasts

some get their nutrition by making their

own food through photosynthesis and some

get their nutrition by eating other

living things

here are some examples of prototist

cells as you can see some may have cell

walls and chloroplasts and some may not

the final kingdom is prokaryote

bacteria is an example of prokaryotes

the main features of all prokaryotes are

they are often unicellular

their cells have cell walls that are not

made of cellulose and cytoplasm but no

nucleus or mitochondria

here's an illustration of a typical

bacterial cell

as you may notice a bacterial cell

doesn't have a nucleus instead it has

strands of DNA and plasmids

okay now that we know something about

the five kingdoms let's dive into the

animal kingdom and learn how organisms

within the animal kingdom can be

furthest classified

two major groups within the animal

kingdom are vertebrates and

invertebrates

this diagram shows that vertebrates can

be further divided into mammals birds

reptiles amphibians and fish

and invertebrates can be further

classified into

myriapods insects arachnids and

Crustaceans let's learn about

vertebrates first vertebrates are

animals that have a backbone

the five classes of vertebrates are

mammals birds

reptiles

amphibians and fish

the first group mammals may be very

familiar since we humans also belong to

this group

some characteristics of mammals are they

have fur or hair

young feed on milk from mammary glands

their heart has four chambers

and they have different types of teeth

which are in scissors canines primolars

and molars

cats and elephants are examples of

mammals

the next group of vertebrates are birds

some characteristics of birds are they

have feathers

they lay eggs with hard shells

they have a beak

and they have wings instead of four

limbs
some examples of birds are toucan parrot

and Flamingo

reptiles are another group of

vertebrates

they have scaly skin and they lay eggs

with rubbery shells

snakes crocodiles and turtles are some

examples of reptiles

amphibians are vertebrates that live on

both land and water

some characteristics of amphibians are

they have moist skin without scales

eggs are laid in water

lava lives in water so they have gills

adults often live on land so they have

lungs

frogs and toads belong to this group

the last group of vertebrates is fish

all fish live in water except for one or

two types

fish have scales on their skin they also

have gills and fins

so those were the five major groups of

vertebrates or animals with a backbone

now let's learn about invertebrates you

may take a guess invertebrates are

animals without a backbone

one of the characteristics used to

further classify invertebrates is

whether they have legs or not

arthropods are a group of invertebrates

that have jointed legs

foreign there are four groups of

arthropods and they are myriapods

insects

arachnids

and crustaceans

these are the characteristics of the

first group of arthropods which is

miliapods

their bodies have many segments or

sections and each segment has at least

one pair of jointed legs

examples of media pods are centipedes

and millipedes

insects are the next group of arthropods

their bodies are divided into three

parts head thorax and abdomen

they have three pairs of jointed legs

and two pairs of wings

Grasshoppers and butterflies are

examples of insects

the next class of arthropods are

arachnids

some of their characteristics are that

they have four pairs of jointed legs and

they breathe through gills called book

lungs

examples of arachnids are spiders and

scorpions

the final class of arthropods are

crustaceans

some of their features are that they

have more than four pairs of jointed

legs

and they breathe through gills

they are not millipedes or centipedes

crabs and lobsters are types of

crustaceans

now we will learn how organisms within

the plant kingdom can be grouped

as we know already at least some parts

of any plant are green

this is because of the green pigment

chlorophyll which absorbs light energy

from the Sun for photosynthesis

the plant kingdom can be sorted into

Ferns and flowering plants

flowering plants may be further divided

into

monocotyledons and dicotyledons

let's look at ferns first ferns have

leaves called fronds they do not produce

flowers but instead reproduce by spores

which are present on the underside of

fronts

flowering plants are the plants that are

most familiar to us

they reproduce by means of flowers and

seeds

their seeds are produced inside the

ovary of the flower

ing plants may be divided into two

groups

monocotyledons and dicotyledons

a cotyledon is a significant part of the

embryo within the seed of a plant

this table helps to differentiate

between

monocotyledons and dicotyledons or

monocots and dicots for short

monocots have a branching root system

while dicots have a Taproot system

the veins in monocot leaves run

parallely and dicot leaves are broader

with branching winds

monocot flowers have petals in multiples

of tree while dicot flowers have petals

in multiples of four or five

this entire chapter we have been

learning about the classification of

living organisms

so it is important to know that a virus

doesn't belong in any classification

system

viruses are not considered to be living

things since they cannot carry out the

southern life processes on their own

they can only take over another living

cell in order to make multiple copies of

themselves

here's an illustration of a virus

a virus is not made of a cell it's

simply genetic material surrounded by a

protein coat

so these are the main things to know

from chapter one characteristics and

classifications of living organisms

hope you found this useful thank you for

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