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classification notes

The document outlines the characteristics of living organisms, including movement, respiration, and reproduction, and explains how organisms are classified into five kingdoms: Animals, Plants, Fungi, Protoctists, and Prokaryotes. It details the binomial system of naming organisms and the use of dichotomous keys for identification. Additionally, it describes the main features of each kingdom and the distinction between vertebrates and invertebrates within the Animal Kingdom.

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7 views

classification notes

The document outlines the characteristics of living organisms, including movement, respiration, and reproduction, and explains how organisms are classified into five kingdoms: Animals, Plants, Fungi, Protoctists, and Prokaryotes. It details the binomial system of naming organisms and the use of dichotomous keys for identification. Additionally, it describes the main features of each kingdom and the distinction between vertebrates and invertebrates within the Animal Kingdom.

Uploaded by

mehakmehboob2
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Characteristics of Living Organisms

• Movement: an action by an organism or part of an organism causing a


change of position or place
• Respiration: the chemical reactions that break down nutrient molecules in
living cells to release energy for metabolism
• Sensitivity: the ability to detect or sense stimuli in the internal or external
environment and to make appropriate responses
• Growth: a permanent increase in size and dry mass by an increase in cell
number or cell size or both
• Reproduction: the processes that make more of the same kind of organism
• 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
• Nutrition: the taking in of materials for energy, growth and development;
plants require light, carbon dioxide, water and ions; animals need organic
compounds, ions and usually need water

How Organisms are Classified


• There are millions of species of organisms on Earth
• A species is defined 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 e.g. all mammals have bodies covered in hair, feed young from
mammary glands and have external ears (pinnas)

The Binomial System


• Organisms were first classified by a Swedish naturalist called Linnaeus in a
way that allows the subdivision of living organisms into smaller and more
specialized groups
• The organisms in these groups have more and more features in common the
more subdivided they get
• He named organisms in Latin using the binomial system where the scientific
name of an organism is made up of two parts starting with the genus (always
given a capital letter) and followed by the species (starting with a lower case
letter)
• When typed binomial names are always in italics (which indicates they are
Latin) e.g. Homo sapiens
• The sequence of classification
is: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
Dichotomous Keys
• Keys are used to identify organisms based on a series of questions about
their features
• Dichotomous means ‘branching into two’ and it leads the user through to the
name of the organism by giving two descriptions at a time and asking them
to choose
• Each choice leads the user onto another two descriptions
• In order to successfully navigate a key, you need to pick a single organism to
start with and follow the statements from the beginning until you find the
name
• You then pick another organism and start at the beginning of the key
again, repeating until all organisms are named
EXAMPLE
The Five Kingdoms
• The first division of living things in the classification system is to put them into
one of five kingdoms. They are:
o Animals
o Plants
o Fungi
o Protoctists
o Prokaryotes

ANIMALS
• Main features of all animals:
o they are multicellular
o their cells contain a nucleus but no cell walls or chloroplasts
o they feed on organic substances made by other living things

The Animal Kingdom


• Is divided into 2 groups vertebrates and invertebrates
• Vertebrates have backbone
• Invertebrates do not have back bone
Vertebrates
• All vertebrates have a backbone
o There are 5 classes of vertebrates
Invertebrates
• Invertebrates do not possess a backbone
• One of the morphological characteristics used to classify invertebrates is whether
they have legs or not
• All invertebrates with jointed legs are part of the phylum Arthropods

Arthropods
• They are classified further into the following classes:
Plants
• Main features of all plants:
o they are multicellular
o their cells contain a nucleus, chloroplasts and cellulose cell walls
o they all feed by photosynthesis

The Plant Kingdom


• At least some parts of any plant are green, caused by the presence of the
pigment chlorophyll which absorbs energy from sunlight for the process
of photosynthesis
• The plant kingdom includes organisms such as ferns and flowering plants
Ferns
• Have leaves called fronds
• Do not produce flowers but instead reproduce by spores produced on the
underside of fronds

Ferns reproduce by spores found in the underside of their fronds


Flowering plants
• Reproduce sexually by means of flowers and seeds
• Seeds are produced inside the ovary found at the base of the flower
• Can be divided into two groups – monocotyledons and dicotyledons

How do you distinguish between monocotyledons and dicotyledons?


1) Flowers
• Flowers from monocotyledons contain petals in multiples of 3
• Flowers from dicotyledons contain petals in multiples of 4 or 5
2) Leaves
• Leaves from monocotyledons have spear shape and parallel leaf veins
• Leaves from dicotyledons have broad shape and branched leaf veins (meaning that
they are all interconnected and form a web-like network throughout the leaf)
Fungi
• Main features of all fungi (e.g. moulds, mushrooms, yeast)
o usually multicellular e.g rhizopus (bread mould) and unicellular e.g
yeast
o cells have nuclei and cell walls made of chitin and not cellulose
o do not photosynthesize but feed by saprophytic (on dead or decaying
material) or parasitic (on live material) nutrition
o store carbohydrates as glycogen

Protoctists
• Main features of all Protoctists (e.g. Amoeba, Paramecium, Plasmodium)
o most are unicellular
o all have a nucleus, some may have cell walls and chloroplasts
o some protoctists photosynthesise (autotroph) and some feed on
organic substances made by other living things (hetrotroph)
Prokaryotes (bacteria)
• Main features of all Prokaryotes (bacteria, blue-green algae)
o unicellular
o cells have cell walls made of peptidoglycan (not made of cellulose)
and cytoplasm but no nucleus (nucleic acid present freely in
cytoplasm)
o Have plasmids (tool for genetic engineering)

Viruses
• Viruses are not part of any classification system as they are not considered living
things
• They do not carry out the seven life processes for themselves
• They take over a host cell’s in order to make multiple copies of themselves
• Virus structure is simply genetic material (RNA or DNA) inside a protein coat

VIRUS REPLICATION

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