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)

Reflecting Evolutionary Relationships: 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

 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
 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 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
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
 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 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
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 arthropod phylum
 They are classified further into the following groups:
The Five Kingdoms: Extended
Extended Tier Only

 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
 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
  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

The Plant Kingdom: Extended

Extended Tier Only

 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
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?

 Flowers
o Flowers from monocotyledons contain petals in multiples of 3 while flowers
from dicotyledons contain petals in multiples of 4 or 5

 Leaves
o Leaves from monocotyledons have parallel leaf veins while leaves from dicotyledons
have reticulated leaf veins
 Reticulated = form a web-like network throughout the leaf
o Leaves from monocotyledons are narrow and grass-like while leaves from dicotyledons
tend to have broader leaves that come in a wide range of shapes
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, 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
Dichotomous keys
EXAMPLE# 1: Plant species can be identified using a dichotomous key. Figure shows the leaves from six plant species,
A to F. Write the letter of each species (A to F) in the correct box in the key.
EXAMPLE# 2: Figure shows seven species of fish that live on reefs in the Caribbean.
Use the key to identify each species. Write the letter of each species (A to G) in the correct
box beside the key. One has been done for you.

Answers
EXAMPLE# 3: Figure shows six marine mammals. The images are not drawn to the same scale.
Use the dichotomous key below to identify each of the marine mammals shown in Fig.
For each mammal, write the letter next to the description.
1) Mammal has hairs around its nose. ..........................................go to 3)
Mammal does not have hairs around its nose. .........................go to 2)
2) Mammal has spots all over its body. .........................................go to 4)
Mammal does not have spots all over its body. .........................go to 5)

ANSWERS
EXAMPLE# 4: Myriapods can be classified into four classes, 1, 2, 3 and 4. Figure is a
dichotomous key that can be used to distinguish the four classes of myriapods.
Answers:

EXAMPLE# 5: Use the dichotomous key, Fig. 1.1, to identify the five vertebrate groups, A, B,
C, D and E.
Answers
 Animal & plant cells
Animal cell structure

 The main features of animal cells:

o They contain a nucleus with a distinct membrane
o Cells do not have cellulose cell walls
o Their cells do not contain chloroplasts (so they are unable to carry
out photosynthesis)
o They contain carbohydrates stored as glycogen

Plant cell structure

 The main features of plant cells:

o They contain a nucleus with a distinct membrane
o Cells have cell walls made out of cellulose
o They contain chloroplasts (so they can carry out photosynthesis)
o Carbohydrates are stored as starch or sucrose
Plant and animal cell structure and function
Bacteria cells
Bacteria cell structure

 Bacteria, which have a wide variety of shapes and sizes, all share the following biological
characteristics:
o They are microscopic single-celled organisms
o Possess a cell wall (made of peptidoglycan, not cellulose), cell
membrane, cytoplasm and ribosomes
o Lack a nucleus but contain a circular chromosome of DNA that floats in the
cytoplasm
o Plasmids are sometimes present - these are small rings of DNA (also floating in the
cytoplasm) that contain extra genes to those found in the chromosomal DNA
o They lack mitochondria, chloroplasts and other membrane-bound
organelles found in animal and plant cells
 Some bacteria also have a flagellum (singular) or several flagella (plural). These are long,
thin, whip-like tails attached to bacteria that allow them to move
 Examples of bacteria include:
o Lactobacillus (a rod-shaped bacterium used in the production of yoghurt from milk)
o Pneumococcus (a spherical bacterium that acts as the pathogen causing pneumonia)

Specialised Cells
Specialised cells in animals

 Specialised cells are those which have developed certain characteristics in order
to perform particular functions. These differences are controlled by genes in the nucleus
 Cells specialise by undergoing differentiation: this is a process by which cells develop the
structure and characteristics needed to be able to carry out their functions
Ciliated Cell

Neuron Cell

Red blood cell

 Sperm Cell

Egg Cell
Specialsed Cells in Plants
 Root Hair Cell

Palisade Mesophyll Cells

Levels of Organisation in an Organism
 Magnification Formula
Calculating magnification and specimen size using millimetres as units

 Magnification is calculated using the following equation:

Magnification = Image size ÷ Actual size

 A better way to remember the equation is using an equation triangle:

  Rearranging the equation to find things other than the magnification becomes easy when you
remember the triangle - whatever you are trying to find, place your finger over it and whatever
is left is what you do, so:
o Magnification = image size / actual size
o Actual size = image size / magnification
o Image size = magnification x actual size

Note: Remember magnification does not have any units and is just written as ‘x 10’ or ‘x 5000’

Important POINTS:
1. Always look at the units that have been given in the question - if you are asked to measure
something, most often you will be expected to measure it in millimetres NOT in centimetres -
double check the question to see!
2. Learn the equation triangle for magnification and write it on the page straight away
3. Don’t forget that magnification has NO UNITS - students often lose a mark because they put
one in
Using millimetres and micrometres as units

 The table below shows how millimetres are related to two other measures of length
 What this basically means is that 1mm = 1000µm and 1cm = 10,000µm
 This usually comes up in questions where you have two different units and you need to ensure
that you convert them both into the same unit before proceeding with the calculation
 For example: