Actuation Academy The living world

Diversity in the living world

 Biology: Bios = life, Logos = study, Means study of life in biology
 Biology is the story of life on earth.
 Biology is the story of evolution of living organisms on earth.
 Biology is the science of life forms and living processes
 Early man could easily perceive the difference between inanimate matter and living
organisms. Early man deified some of the inanimate matter (wind, sea, fire etc.) and some
among the animals and plants.
 A common feature of all such forms of inanimate and animate objects was the sense of awe or
fear that they evoked.
 The description of living organisms including human beings began much later in human
history.
 Societies which indulged in anthropocentric view of biology could register limited progress in
biological knowledge.
 Systematic and monumental description of life forms brought in, out of necessity, detailed
systems of identification, nomenclature and classification. The biggest spin off of such studies
was the recognition of the sharing of similarities among living organisms both horizontally
and vertically.
 That all present day living organisms are related to each other and also to all organisms that
ever lived on this earth, was a revelation which humbled man and led to cultural movements
for conservation of biodiversity.
 All living organisms – present, past and future, are linked to one another by the sharing of the
common genetic material, but to varying degrees.

Living being of Future

Living being of Present Transfer of

Genetic material

Living being of Past

Ernst Mayr
 Born on 5 July 1904, in Kempten, Germany, ERNST MAYR,
 The Harvard University evolutionary biologist who has been called ‘The Darwin of the 20th
century’, was one of the 100 greatest scientists of all time.
 Mayr joined Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 1953 and retired in 1975, assuming
the title Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology Emeritus.
 Throughout his nearly 80-year career, his research spanned ornithology, taxonomy,
zoogeography, evolution, systematics, and the history and philosophy of biology.
 He almost single-handedly made the origin of species diversity the central question of
evolutionary biology that it is today.
 He also pioneered the currently accepted definition of a biological species.
 Mayr was awarded the three prizes widely regarded as the triple crown of biology:
1. The Balzan Prize in 1983,
2. The International Prize for Biology in 1994,
3. The Crafoord Prize in 1999.
 Mayr died at the age of 100 in the year 2004.
Actuation Academy The living world

The living world

 How wonderful is the living world! Because of wide range of living types, the extraordinary
habitats in which this wide range of living types live.
 The ecological conflict and cooperation
o among members of a population and
o among populations of a community
or even the molecular traffic inside a cell make us deeply reflect on – what indeed is life?
This question has two implicit questions within it.
 The first is a technical one and seeks answer to what living is as opposed to the
non-living, and
 The second is a philosophical one, and seeks answer to what the purpose of life
is.

What Is Living
Following are the characteristics of living
1. Growth,
2. Reproduction or ability to self-replicate,
3. metabolism,
4. self-organise,
5. interact or ability to sense environment and mount a suitable response or
Consciousness
1, 2 not the defining properties/ Characters/feature
While 3,4,5 are defining properties/ Characters/feature
Note: The Character which has no exception is called a defining property
1. Growth
 All living organisms grow.
 Increase in mass and increase in number of individuals are twin characteristics of growth.
 A multicellular organism grows by cell division and unicellular organisms grow by cell
division.
 In plants, this growth by cell division occurs continuously throughout their life span.
(Indeterminate growth)
 In animals, this growth is seen only up to a certain age. (Determinate growth)
 Cell division occurs in certain tissues to replace lost cells(Repairing).
 One can easily observe this in in vitro cultures by simply counting the number of cells under
the microscope.
 In majority of higher animals and plants, growth and reproduction are mutually exclusive
(distinctive) events.
 One must remember that increase in body mass is considered as growth.
 Non-living objects also grow if we take increase in body mass as a criterion for growth.
Mountains, boulders and sand mounds do grow. However, this kind of growth exhibited by
non-living objects is by accumulation of material on the surface. So growth is not exclusive
property of living
 In living organisms, growth is from inside.Internal growth is Exclusive property of living.
 Growth, therefore, cannot be taken as a defining property of living organisms.
 Conditions under which it can be observed in all living organisms have to be explained and
then we understand that it is a characteristic of living systems.
 A dead organism does not grow.
Actuation Academy The living world

Type of growth on the basis of time

(a) Determinate growth or limited growth - when growth occur only upto certain age it
occurs in animals.
(b) Indeterminate growth or Unlimited growth - when growth occur throughout the life it
occur in plants
Type of growth on the basis of source.
(a) Intrinsic Growth – Growth occur from inside of body
(b) Extrinsic Growth – growth is from outside (accumulation of material)

2. Reproduction
 It is a characteristic of living organisms.
 In multicellular organisms, reproduction refers to the production of progeny possessing
features more or less similar to those of parents. Invariably and implicitly we refer to sexual
reproduction(in this type of reproduction gametes are involved).
 Organisms reproduce by asexual (in Animals) or vegetative (in Plants) means also.
Fungi Asexual spores or Fragmentation
Yeast (fungi) and Hydra Budding
Planaria (flat worms) True regeneration
Protonema of mosses Fragmentation
Filamentous algae Fragmentation
Note : True regeneration, i.e., a fragmented organism regenerates the lost part of its body and
becomes, a new organism (method of reproduction not repairing)
Regeneration in this only lost part of body is regained (method of repairing not reproduction)
When it comes to unicellular organisms like bacteria, unicellular algae or Amoeba, reproduction is
synonymous with growth, i.e., increase in number of cells.
 We have already defined growth as equivalent to increase in cell number or mass. Hence, we
notice that in single-celled organisms, we are not very clear about the usage of these two
terms – growth and reproduction.
 Further, there are many organisms which do not reproduce (mules, sterile worker bees,
infertile human couples, etc).
 Hence, reproduction also cannot be an all-inclusive defining characteristic of living
organisms.
 Of course, no non-living object is capable of reproducing or replicating by itself.

Type of Reproduction
(a) Sexual Reproduction- In this gametes (haploid) are formed by meiosis and fertilisation
takes place to form progeny.
(b) Asexual Reproduction or vegetative Growth In this gametes, meiosis and fertilisation
does not takes place to form progeny.

3. Metabolism.
 The sum total of all the chemical reactions (anabolism and catabolism) occurring in our
body is metabolism.
 All living organisms are made of chemicals (Biomolecules).
 These chemicals, small and big, belonging to various classes, sizes, functions, etc., are
constantly being made and changed into some other biomolecules.
 These conversions are chemical reactions or metabolic reactions. There are thousands of
metabolic reactions occurring simultaneously inside all living organisms, be they unicellular
or multicellular.
 All plants, animals, fungi and microbes exhibit metabolism.
Actuation Academy The living world
 No non-living object exhibits metabolism.
 Metabolic reactions can be demonstrated outside the body in cell-free systems. An isolated
metabolic reaction(s) outside the body of an organism, performed in a test tube is neither
living nor non-living.
 Hence, while metabolism is a defining feature of all living organisms without exception,
isolated metabolic reactions in vitro are not living things but surely living reactions.

Metabolism = Catabolism + Anabolism

Catabolism – Breakdown of new substance
Anabolism – Formation of new substance

4. Cellular organisation
 Cellular organisation of the body is the defining feature of life forms.
 All organisms are made up of cell. Organisms which are made up of one cell are known as
unicellular organisms while are made of many cells are called multicellular organism.
 Both type of organisms are capable of independent existence and performing all functions
necessary for living.
 Anything less than a cell is incapable of living.

5. Consciousness
 Consciousness is most obvious and technically complicated feature of all living organisms.
 Consciousness is this ability to sense their surroundings or environment
 After sense their environment organisms respond to these environmental stimuli which could
be physical, chemical or biological.
 Humans sense their environment through our sense organs.
 Plants respond to external factors like light, water, temperature, other organisms, pollutants,
etc.
 All organisms, from the prokaryotes to the most complex eukaryotes can sense and respond to
environmental cues.
 Photoperiod affects reproduction in seasonal breeders, both plants and animals.
 All organisms handle chemicals entering their bodies.
 All organisms therefore, are ‘aware’ of their surroundings.
 Human being is the only organism who is aware of himself, i.e., has self-consciousness.
 Consciousness therefore, becomes the defining property of living organisms.
 When it comes to human beings, it is all the more difficult to define the living state. We
observe patients lying in coma in hospitals virtually supported by machines which replace
heart and lungs. The patient is otherwise brain-dead. The patient has no self-consciousness.
Are such patients who never come back to normal life, living or non-living?
Note From above discussion we can say that living organisms are self-replicating,

Note:
 All living phenomena are due to underlying interactions.
 Properties of tissues are not present in the constituent cells but arise as a result of interactions
among the constituent cells.
 Properties of cellular organelles are not present in the molecular constituents of the organelle but
arise as a result of interactions among the molecular components comprising the organelle.
 These interactions result in emergent properties at a higher level of organisation. This
phenomenon is true in the hierarchy of organisational complexity at all levels
Actuation Academy The living world
evolving and self-regulating interactive systems capable of responding to external
stimuli.

Other Characteristics of living being

6. Presence of protoplasm
7. Movements
8. Response and irritability
9. Healing and repair
10. Excretion
12. Genetic continuity
13. Adaptation
15. Homeostasis

Diversity in living world

 The number of species that are known and described range between 1.7-1.8 million. This
refers to biodiversity or the number and types of organisms present on earth.
 Maximum diversity found in tropical rain forest followed by coral reefs
Nomenclature
 To provide a specific name to an organism all over the world (to prevent conflict) this is
called nomenclature.
 Nomenclature can’t be done without identification (when the organism is described correctly)
Obviously, nomenclature or naming is only possible and we know to what organism the name is
attached to. This is identification.
 Binomial system was first introduced by Gaspard Bauhin in his Bbook “ Pinax Theatre
Botanica”
 C. Linnaeus used this system on large scale (father of binomial system)
 In “Species plantrum” he wrote scientific name of plants, this book published on 1 may 1973
this is considered as initiation of binomial system for plants, any name before this date is not
accepted today.
 He proposed scientific name of animal in “Species plantrum” (10th edition), this book is
published on 1 aug 1758, so this date is considered as starting date of animal binomial system,
so any name before this is not considered as valid today.

Taxonomy
Taxis = arrangement, nomos = law; Taxonomy is the study of principle and products of classification.
This word was used by A.Pde. Candolle in his book, “Theories elementaire de la botanique”
(Theory elementary botany)
Taxonomy includes study of following points
(1) Characterisation
(2) Identification: A process by which an organism recognised from the others by already known
organism and is assigned to a particular taxonomic group is called identification
(3) Nomenclature: Naming of organism according to international scientific rule is called
nomenclature
(4) Classification: A process by which any organism is grouped into convenient categories on the
basis of some easily observable characters

Old Systematics:
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 The term "Systematics" was proposed by Linnaeus. The word "Systematics" is derived from
the latinword "systema" which means systematic arrangement of organisms
 According to G. Simpson: Systematics is the study of diversity of organism and all their
comparative and evolutionary relationship
Note: It includes description of external morphological characters of plants or beg organisms eg.
Morphological characters of Root, Stems, Leaves and Flowers

New systematics or Neo systematics:

 Neo systematics-A new branch Name given by Julian Huxley (1940)
 It includes description of all external and internal structure, along with the structure of
developmental process and ecological information’s of organism
 It is used to know the inter relationship among Iiving organism
Note: New systematics is mainly based on evolutionary as well as genetic relationshipsexperimental
taxonomy as compared to morphological characters.
Note:
Taxon: Taxon is a group of genetically related individuals having distinct characters from those of
other groups

ICBN: International Code for Botanical Nomenclature, First accepted in 1961

ICZN: International Code for Zoological Nomenclature
ICNB:International Code of Nomenclature for Bacteria
ICTV:International Committee for the taxonomy of virus
ICVN:International Code of viral Nomenclature
ICNCP:International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants
CBSG: Captive Breeding Specialist Group
SSC: Species Survival Commission
IUCN: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Recourse
Category: It represents a rank or level in classification.

Main rules of ICBN

 According to binomial system name of any species consists of two components or words
(i) Generic name – Name of genus
(ii) Specific epithet

e.g. SolanumtuberosumSpecific epithet Mangiferaindica

Generic name Generic name Specific epithet

 In plants nomenclature (ICBN) tautonyms are not valid i.e. generic name and specific epithet
should not be same in plants.
e.g.Mangiferaindica
But tautonyms are valid in animal nomenclature (ICZN – International Code of Zoological
Nomeenclature)
e.g. Najanaja(Indian cobra) Rattusrattus(Rat)
 First letter of generic name should be in capital letter and first letter of specific epithet should
be in small letter
e.g.Mangiferaindica
Actuation Academy The living world
But if specific epithet is based on the name of any person, its first letter should be in capital
letter
e.g.IsoetesPantii(Quillworts)
 When written with free hand or typed, then generic name and specific epithet should be
separately underlined but while printing should be italics to indicate their Latin origin
 Name of scientist (who proposed nomenclature) should be written in short after the specific
epithet
 e.g.MangiferaindicaLinn.
 Name of scientist should be neither underlined nor in Italics, but written in simple alphabets
 Scientific should be derived from Latin (usually) or Greek (because both are dead languages
 Type specimen (Herbarium sheet) of newly discovered plant should be placed in herbarium
(dry garden)

Trinomial Nomenclature
 Proposed by Huxely and Stricklandt
 Name composed of three words
(i)Generic Name (ii) Specific Epithet (iii) Sub specific epithet (name of variety)
Brassica oleracea botrytis (Cauliflower)
Brassica oleraceacapitata (Cabbage)
Brassica oleraceacaulorapa (Knol-Knol)

Taxonomic categories
 Classification is not a single step process but involves hierarchy of steps in which each step
represents a rank or category.
 As the category is a part of overall taxonomic arrangement, it is called the taxonomic
category and all categories together constitute the taxonomic hierarchy.
 Each category, referred to as a unit of classification, this unit represents a rank and is
commonly termed as taxon (pl.: taxa).
 Taxonomic categories and hierarchy can be illustrated by an example. Insects represent a
group of organisms sharing common features like three pairs of jointed legs. It means insects
are recognizable concrete objects which can be classified, and thus were given a rank or
category.
 Each rank or taxon, in fact, represents a unit of classification. These taxonomic groups/
categories are distinct biological entities and not merely morphological aggregates.
 Taxonomical studies of all known organisms have led to the development of common
categories such as kingdom, phylum or division (for plants), class, order, family, genus and
species.
 All organisms, including those in the plant and animal kingdoms have species as the lowest
category.

Species (John Ray)

 Taxonomic studies consider a group of individual organisms with fundamental similarities as
a species.
 One should be able to distinguish one species from the other closely related species based on
the distinct morphological differences.
 Mangiferaindica(Mango), Solanumtuberosum (potato), Pantheraleo (lion). All the three
names, indica, tuberosum and leo, represent the specific epithets, while the first words
Mangifera, Solanum and Panthera are genera (Genus name) and represents another higher
level of taxon or category.
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 Each genus may have one or more than one specific epithets representing different organisms,
but having morphological similarities.

Genus (John Ray)

 Genus comprises a group of related species which has more characters in common in
comparison to species of other genera.
 We can say that genera are aggregates of closely related species.
 Family, has a group of related genera with still less number of similarities as compared to
genus and species.
 Families are characterised on the basis of both vegetative and reproductive features of plant
species.

Order (Linnaeus)
 Order and other higher taxonomic categories are identified based on the aggregates of
characters.
 Order being a higher category, is the assemblage of families which exhibit a few similar
characters.
 The similar characters are less in number as compared to different genera included in a
family.

Class (Linnaeus)
 This category includes related orders.

Phylum (Cuvier) or Division (Eichler)

 Classes comprising animals like fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds along with mammals
constitute the next higher category called Phylum. All these, based on the common features
like presence of notochord and dorsal hollow neural system, are included in phylum Chordata.
 In case of plants, classes with a few similar characters are assigned to a higher category called
Division.

Kingdom (ICBN)
 All animals belonging to various phyla are assigned to the highest category called Kingdom
Animalia in the classification system of animals.
 The Kingdom Plantae, on the other hand, is distinct, and comprises all plants from various
divisions.
Note:

 Classification always done in Descending or Ascending order

 Hierarchy - Arrangement of Taxonomic categories in Descending or Ascending order
 There are 7 main Taxonomic categories (for plants we some time use sub categories such as sub-
division, sub-order, sub-family etc.
 Species- smallest taxonomic category (basic unit of classification)
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SPECIES CONCEPT

John Ray-Proposed the term and concept of species. He described more than 18 thousands plants and
animals in his book Historiageneralisplantarum.

Biological concept of species:-

 Ernst Mayr (Darwin of 20th century) proposed the biological concept of species.
 Mayr defined the "species" in the form of biological concept
 According to Mayr "All the members that can interbreed among themself and can produce
fertile offsprings are the members of same species"
But this definition of Mayr was incomplete because this definition is applicable to sexually
reproducing living beings because there are many organisms that have only asexual mode of
reproduction-eg. Bacteria, Mycoplasma, BGA
 The main character in determination of any species is interbreeding. But this character is not
used in taxonomy. In taxonomy, the determination of species is mainly based on
morphological characters
 In higher plants, the determination of species is mainly based on the morphology of flower
(floral morphology). Because floral (reproductive) characters are more conservative as
compared to vegetative (Root, Stem, Leaf) characters i.e. they do not show major change

Taxonomic concept of species :-

 When the species is determined on the basis of morphological characters then it is called as
taxonomic species.
 eg. If two plants have almost same fundamental morphological characters, then they belong to
same species. Cauliflower, Cabbage, Knol – Khol Brassica oleracea
These 3 have same morphological characters. Therefore they belong to same taxonomic species
i.e. one taxonomic species.
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Suffix for taxa and taxon

Division phyta
Sub division phytina
Class opsida, phyceae, ae
Order ales
Sub order ineae
Family aceae
Sub Family oideae
No suffix for Kingdom, Genus, and Species

Decending order Ascending order

similarities increases similarities decreases

and disimilarities and disimilarities

decreases increases
Actuation Academy The living world
Organism Mango Potato Brinjal Black nightshade Wheat
Kingdom
Division
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

Organism Lion Tiger Leopard Cat Dog Human House fly Face fly
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

Taxonomical Aids
 Taxonomic studies of various species of plants, animals and other organisms are useful in
agriculture, forestry, industry and in general in knowing our bio-resources and their diversity.
 These studies would require correct classification and identification of organisms.
 Identification of organisms requires intensive laboratory and field studies.
 The collection of actual specimens of plant and animal species is essential and is the prime
source of taxonomic studies.
 These are also fundamental to studies and essential for training in systematics.
 It is used for classification of an organism, and the information gathered is also stored along
with the specimens.
 In some cases the specimen is preserved for future studies. Biologists have established certain
procedures and techniques to store and preserve the information as well as the specimens.
 Some of these are explained to help you understand the usage of these aids.

1. Herbarium
 It is a store house of collected plant specimens that are dried, pressed and preserved on sheets.
 Further, these sheets are arranged decreasing according to a universally accepted system of
classification.
 These specimens, along with their descriptions on herbarium sheets, become a store house or
repository for future use.
 The herbarium sheets also carry a label providing information about date and place of
collection, English, local and botanical names, family, collector’s name, etc.
 Herbaria also serve as quick referral systems in taxonomical studies
 Standard size of herbarium sheet is 11.5 X 16.5 inches

Types of herbarium
 Holotype: the single specimen designated by an author as the type of a species or lesser taxon
at the time of establishing the group
 Neotype: a type specimen that is selected subsequent to the description of a species to replace
a preexisting type that has been lost or destroyed. A neotype is a replacement specimen for
the holotype, where the original holotype has been lost, destroyed or was never designated.
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 Isotype: A plant specimen that is a duplicate of or very similar to the type_specimen and
can be used as a reference specimen if the type specimen is lost.
 Lectotype: is a specimen later selected to serve as the single type specimen for species
originally described from a set of syntypes. In zoology, a lectotype is a kind of name-
bearing type. A lectotype is a single specimen of a syntype (series of specimens) selected
to serves as the neotype of the species, where the species was previously defined by the
syntype.
 Syntype: is a collection of specimens that together serve as the definition of the species
where a holotype was never selected (syntypes are now frowned upon).
 Paratype: A specimen not formally designated as a type but cited along with the type
collection in the original description of a taxon.

Some important Herbaria:

 Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew (London) is the largest herbarium in the World with a total
number of about 6.5 million plants specimens
 British Museum of Natural History (Paris) has total number of abouts 6 million species
 New York Botanical Garden (New York) has total number of about 4.0 million species
 Central National Herbarium (Indian Botanical Gardens) Sibpur, Kolkata, India (largest
herbarium in India) has total number of about 2 million species
 Madras Herbarium, Coimbatore (MH), India has a total number of about 1,50,000 million
species.
 Herbarium of National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India has a total number of
about 80,000.
 Herbarium of Forest Research Institute, Dehradun
2. Botanical Gardens
 These specialised gardens have collections of living plants for reference.
 Plant species in these gardens are grown for identification purposes and each plant is labelled
indicating its botanical/scientific name and its family.
 The famous botanical gardens are at
o Royal Botanic Kew (England),
o Indian Botanical Garden, Howrah (India)
o National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow (India).
o Lloyed Botanical Garden. Darjeeling, West Bengal
o Ooty Botanical Garden, Tamilnadu
o Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Banglore, Karnataka

3. Museum
 Biological museums have collections of preserved plant and animal specimens for study and
reference.
 Specimens are preserved in the containers or jars in preservative solutions. (formalin - 40%
solution of formaldehyde).
 Plant and animal specimens may also be preserved as dry specimens.
 Insects are preserved in insect boxes after collecting, killing and pinning.
 Larger animals like birds and mammals are usually stuffed and preserved.
 Museums often have collections of skeletons of animals too.

4. Zoological Parks
 These are the places where wild animals are kept in protected environments under human care
and which enable us to learn about their food habits and behaviour.
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 The famous zoological parks
o San Diego Zoo, California
o London Zoo, England
o Allen Forest zoo, Kanpur
o Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad
o Indira Gandhi Zoological Park, Visakhapatnam.
o JijamataUdyaan, Mumbai

5. Key
 Key is another taxonomical aid used for identification of plants and animals based on the
similarities and dissimilarities.
 The keys are based on the contrasting characters generally in a pair called couplet.
 It represents the choice made between two opposite options. This results in acceptance of only
one and rejection of the other.
 Each statement in the key is called a lead.
 Separate taxonomic keys are required for each taxonomic category such as family, genus and
species for identification purposes.
 Keys are generally analytical in nature

6. Flora
 Flora contains the actual account of habitat and distribution of plants of a given area.
7. Manuals
 Manuals are recorded descriptions useful in providing information for identification of names
of species found in an area.
8. Monographs
 Monographs contain information on any one taxon.
9. Catalogues
 Catalogues are the books or register containing the list (arranged in a particular order,
generally alphabetically) of all species found in a particular place or area.

Summary
 The living world is rich in variety.
 Millions of plants and animals have been identified and described but a large number still
remains unknown.
 The very range of organisms in terms of size, colour, habitat, physiological and
morphological features make us seek the defining characteristics of living organisms.
 In order to facilitate the study of kinds and diversity of organisms, biologists have evolved
certain rules and principles for identification, nomenclature and classification of organisms.
The branch of knowledge dealing with these aspects is referred to as taxonomy.
 The taxonomic studies of various species of plants and animals are useful in agriculture,
forestry, industry and in general for knowing our bio-resources and their diversity.
 The basics of taxonomy like (characterisation) identification, naming and classification of
organisms are universally evolved under international codes.
 Based on the resemblances and distinct differences, each organism is identified and assigned
a correct scientific/biological name comprising two words as per the binomial system of
nomenclature.
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 An organism represents/occupies a place or position in the system of classification. There are
many categories/ranks and are generally referred to as taxonomic categories or taxa. All the
categories constitute a taxonomic hierarchy.
 Taxonomists have developed a variety of taxonomic aids to facilitate identification, naming
and classification of organisms.
 These studies are carried out from the actual specimens which are collected from the field and
preserved as referrals in the form of herbaria, museums and in botanical gardens and
zoological parks.
 It requires special techniques for collection and preservation of specimens in herbaria and
museums.
 Live specimens, on the other hand, of plants and animals, are found in botanical gardens or in
zoological parks.
 Taxonomists also prepare and disseminate information through manuals and monographs for
further taxonomic studies.
 Taxonomic keys are tools that help in identification based on characteristics.