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

Exam Tip

Use this mnemonic to help you remember these processes:

MRS. H. GREN

• Movement

• Respiration

• Sensitivity

• Homeostasis

• Growth and development

• Reproduction

• Excretion

• Nutrition

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 specialised groups

• The species 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
Reflecting Evolutionary Relationships: Extended

• Classification systems aim to reflect evolutionary relationships between species

• Traditional biological classification systems grouped organisms based on the features that
they shared

o If organisms shared more similar features then they were said to be more closely
related

• In the past, scientists have encountered many difficulties when trying to determine
the evolutionary relationships of species based on this method

• Using the physical features of species (such as colour/shape/size) has many limitations and
can often lead to the wrong classification of species

Using DNA to Classify Organisms: Extended

• Organisms share features because they originally descend from a common ancestor

• Example: all mammals have bodies covered in hair, feed young from mammary glands and
have external ears (pinnas)

• Originally, organisms were classified using morphology (the overall form and shape of the
organism, e.g. whether it had wings or legs) and anatomy (the detailed body structure as
determined by dissection)

• As technology advanced, microscopes, knowledge of biochemistry and eventually DNA

sequencing allowed us to classify organisms using a more scientific approach

• Studies of DNA sequences of different species show 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 in time their common ancestor is)

• This means that the base sequences in a mammal’s DNA are more closely related to all
other mammals than to any other vertebrate groups

DNA sequences can show how closely related different species are
• The sequences above show that Brachinus armiger and Brachinus hirsutus are more closely
related than any other species in the list as their DNA sequences are identical except for the
last but one base (B.armiger has a T in that position whereas B.hirsutus has an A)
 • As DNA base sequences are used to code for amino acid sequences in
proteins, the similarities in amino acid sequences can also be used to
determine how closely related organisms are

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

• 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

A typical animal cell

 • 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

A typical plant cells

The Animal Kingdom

• Several main features are used to place organisms into groups within the animal kingdom

Vertebrates
• All vertebrates have a backbone

o There are 5 classes of vertebrates

Vertebrate Table
 Vertebrate classification
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

• They are classified further into the following classes:

Invertebrate Table

Arthropod classification
The Five Kingdoms: Extended

• 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

• Main features of all fungi (e.g. moulds, mushrooms, yeast)

o usually multicellular

o cells have nuclei and cell walls not made from cellulose

o do not photosynthesize but feed by saprophytic (on dead or decaying material) or

parasitic (on live material) nutrition
A typical fungal cell

• Main features of all Protoctists (e.g. Amoeba, Paramecium, Plasmodium)

o most are unicellular but some are multicellular

o all have a nucleus, some may have cell walls and chloroplasts

o meaning some protoctists photosynthesise and some feed on organic

substances made by other living things
Two examples of protoctist cells

• Main features of all Prokaryotes (bacteria, blue-green algae)

o often unicellular

o cells have cell walls (not made of cellulose) and cytoplasm but no nucleus or
mitochondria
A typical bacterial cell

The Plant Kingdom: Extended

• 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

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

Wheat plants are monocotyledons

Sunflowers are 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 parallel leaf veins

• Leaves from dicotyledons have reticulated leaf veins (meaning that they are all
interconnected and form a web-like network throughout the leaf)
Comparing monocots and dicots

Exam Tip

Identification of monocotyledons and dicotyledons comes up fairly frequently in the multiple choice
paper and so it is worth learning the two differences between their flowers and leaves.

Viruses: Extended

• 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, instead they take over a host
cell’s metabolic pathways in order to make multiple copies of themselves

• Virus structure is simply genetic material (RNA or DNA) inside a protein coat

Structure of a typical virus