The living world

1. Ernst Mayr
2. Ernst Mayr was born on 5 July 1904, in Kempten, Germany.
3. Mayr joined Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 1953.
4. His research spanned ornithology, taxonomy, zoogeography, evolution,
systematics, and the history and philosophy of biology.
5. He made the origin of species diversity the central question of evolutionary
biology that it is today.
6. He also pioneered the currently accepted definition of a biological species.
7. He was called ‘The Darwin of the 20th century’.
8. He retired in 1975, assuming the title Alexander Agassiz Professor of
Zoology Emeritus.
9. He was awarded the three prizes widely regarded as the triple crown of
biology: the Balzan Prize in 1983, the International Prize for Biology in 1994,
and the Crafoord Prize in 1999.
10.Mayr died at the age of 100 in the year 2004.

2. Growth in living organisms: Characteristic

1. All living organisms grow.
2. Increase in mass and increase in number of individuals are twin
characteristics of growth.
3. A multicellular organism grows by cell division.
4. In plants, this growth by cell division occurs continuously throughout their
life span.
5. In animals, this growth is seen only up to a certain age.
6. Cell division occurs in certain tissues to replace lost cells.
7. Unicellular organisms grow by cell division.
8. This can be observed in vitro cultures by simply counting the number of
cells under the microscope.
9. In majority of higher animals and plants, growth and reproduction are
mutually exclusive events.
10.Increase in body mass is considered as growth.
11.Non-living objects also grow if we take increase in body mass as a criterion
for growth.
12.Mountains, boulders and sand mounds do grow.
13.This kind of growth exhibited by non-living objects is by accumulation of
material on the surface.
14.In living organisms, growth is from inside.
15.Growth, therefore, cannot be taken as a defining property of living
organisms.
16. 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.
17.A dead organism does not grow.

3. Reproduction in living organisms: Characteristic

1. In multicellular organisms, reproduction refers to the production of progeny
possessing features more or less similar to those of parents.
2. Invariably and implicitly we refer to sexual reproduction.
3. Organisms reproduce by asexual means also.
4. Fungi multiply and spread easily due to the millions of asexual spores they
produce.
5. In lower organisms like yeast and hydra, we observe budding.
6. In Planaria (flat worms), we observe true regeneration, i.e., a fragmented
organism regenerates the lost part of its body and becomes, a new
organism.
7. The fungi, the filamentous algae, the protonema of mosses, all easily
multiply by fragmentation.
8. When it comes to unicellular organisms like bacteria, unicellular algae or
Amoeba, reproduction is synonymous with growth, i.e., increase in number
of cells.
9. Further, there are many organisms which do not reproduce (mules, sterile
worker bees, infertile human couples, etc).
10.Hence, reproduction also cannot be an all-inclusive defining characteristic
of living organisms.
11.Of course, no non-living object is capable of reproducing or replicating by
itself.
 4. Metabolism in living organisms: Characteristic
1. All living organisms are made of chemicals.
2. These chemicals, small and big, belonging to various classes, sizes,
functions, etc., are constantly being made and changed into some other
biomolecules.
3. These conversions are chemical reactions or metabolic reactions.
4. There are thousands of metabolic reactions occurring simultaneously inside
all living organisms, be they unicellular or multicellular.
5. All plants, animals, fungi and microbes exhibit metabolism.
6. The sum total of all the chemical reactions occurring in our body is
metabolism.
7. No non-living object exhibits metabolism.
8. Metabolic reactions can be demonstrated outside the body in cell-free
systems.
9. An isolated metabolic reaction(s) outside the body of an organism,
performed in a test tube is neither living nor non-living.
10. 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.
11.Hence, cellular organisation of the body is the defining feature of life forms.

5. Senses in living organism: characteristic

1. Plants respond to external factors like light, water, temperature, other
organisms, pollutants, etc.
2. All organisms, from the prokaryotes( single celled ) to the most complex
eukaryotes( multi celled ) can sense and respond to environmental cues.
3. Photoperiod affects reproduction in seasonal breeders, both plants and
animals.
4. All organisms handle chemicals entering their bodies.
5. All organisms therefore, are ‘aware’ of their surroundings.
6. Human being is the only organism that is aware of him, i.e., has self-
consciousness.
7. Consciousness therefore, becomes the defining property of living
organisms.
 6. Emergent Properties in Biological Systems
1. Properties of tissues are not present in the constituent cells but arise as a
result of interactions among the constituent cells.
2. Similarly, properties of cellular organelles are not present in the molecular
constituents of the organelle.
3. But arise as a result of interactions among the molecular components
comprising the organelle.
4. These interactions result in emergent properties at a higher level of
organisation.
5. This phenomenon is true in the hierarchy of organisational complexity at all
levels.
6. Therefore, we can say that living organisms are self-replicating, evolving
and self-regulating interactive systems capable of responding to external
stimuli.

7. Nomenclature and identification

1. Nomenclature is the system of standardizing the naming of living
organisms, ensuring that a particular organism is recognized by the same
name across the world.
2. Identification is the process of correctly describing an organism and
determining to which organism a particular name is attached, ensuring
accurate recognition and classification.
3. For plants, scientific names are based on agreed principles and criteria,
which are provided in International Code for Botanical Nomenclature
(ICBN).
4. Animal taxonomists have evolved International Code of Zoological
Nomenclature (ICZN).
5. Each name has two components – the Generic name and the specific
epithet. This system of providing a name with two components is called
Binomial nomenclature. This naming system given by Carolus Linnaeus is
being practised by biologists all over the world.
6. The scientific name of mango is written as Mangifera indica.
7. Mangifera represents the genus while indica, is a particular species, or a
specific epithet.
 8. Universal rules of nomenclature
1. Biological names are generally in Latin and written in italics.
2. They are Latinised or derived from Latin irrespective of their origin.
3. The first word in a biological name represents the genus while the second
component denotes the specific epithet.
4. Both the words in a biological name, when handwritten, are separately
underlined, or printed in italics to indicate their Latin origin.
5. The first word denoting the genus starts with a capital letter while the
specific epithet starts with a small letter.
6. Mangifera indica Linn indicates that this species was first described by
Linnaeus.

9. Classification

1. Classification is the process by which anything is grouped into convenient

categories based on easily observable characteristics.
2. Each group or category is referred to as a taxon (plural: taxa), which
represents a unit of classification.
3. The process of classification is called taxonomy.
4. Classification is not a single-step process but involves a hierarchy of
ranks. Each rank or category represents a step in the overall taxonomic
arrangement, known as the taxonomic hierarchy.
5. These taxonomic categories are distinct biological entities and not just
morphological aggregates.
6. Common categories in the taxonomic hierarchy include kingdom, phylum
(or division for plants), class, order, family, genus, and species.
7. Species is the lowest and most specific category for all organisms, whether
in the plant or animal kingdoms.

10. Species

1. Taxonomic studies classify a group of individual organisms with

fundamental similarities as a species.
2. In scientific names like Mangifera indica, Solanum tuberosum, and
Panthera leo, the second part (indica, tuberosum, leo) represents the
specific epithet,
3. While the first part (Mangifera, Solanum, Panthera) denotes the genus, a
higher taxonomic category.
4. A genus may contain multiple species with morphological similarities.
 5. For example, the genus Panthera includes both Panthera leo (lion) and
Panthera tigris (tiger), and the genus Solanum includes species like
Solanum nigrum and Solanum melongena.
6. Human beings are classified under the species sapiens, which belongs to
the genus Homo, and their scientific name is written as Homo sapiens.

11. Genus
1. Genus comprises a group of related species which has more characters in
common in comparison to species of other genera.
2. For example, potato and brinjal are two different species but both belong to
the genus Solanum. Lion (Panthera leo), leopard (P. pardus) and tiger (P.
tigris) with several common features, are all species of the genus Panthera.
3. This genus differs from another genus Felis which includes cats.

12. Family
1. Family, has a group of related genera with still less number of similarities as
compared to genus and species.
2. Families are characterised on the basis of both vegetative and reproductive
features of plant species.
3. Among plants for example, three different genera Solanum, Petunia and
Datura are placed in the family Solanaceae.
4. Among animals for example, genus Panthera, comprising lion, tiger, leopard
is put along with genus, Felis (cats) in the family Felidae.

13. Order
1. Generally, order and other higher taxonomic categories are identified based
on the aggregates of characters.
2. Order being a higher category, is the assemblage of families which exhibit a
few similar characters.
3. The similar characters are less in number as compared to different genera
included in a family.
4. Plant families like Convolvulaceae, Solanaceae are included in the order
Polymoniales mainly based on the floral characters.
5. The animal order, Carnivora, includes families like Felidae and Canidae.
 14. Class
1. This category includes related orders.
2. For example, order Primata comprising monkey, gorilla and gibbon is placed
in class Mammalia along with order Carnivora that includes animals like
tiger, cat and dog. Class Mammalia has other orders also.

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

16. Kingdom
1. All animals belonging to various phyla are assigned to the highest category
called Kingdom Animalia in the classification system of animals.
2. The Kingdom Plantae, on the other hand, is distinct, and comprises all
plants from various divisions.
3.

As we go higher from species to kingdom, the number of common

characteristics goes on decreasing.
4. Lower the taxa, more are the characteristics that the members within the
taxon share.
5. Higher the category, greater is the difficulty of determining the relationship
to other taxa at the same level.
6. Hence, the problem of classification becomes more complex.
7.

17. Systematics
1. Systematics is the scientific study of the classification and evolutionary
relationships of organisms.
2. The word systematics is derived from the Latin word ‘systema’ which means
systematic arrangement of organisms.
3. Linnaeus used Systema Naturae as the title of his publication.

18. Taxonomical Aids

1. 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.
2. These studies would require correct classification and identification of
organisms.
3. Identification of organisms requires intensive laboratory and field studies.
4. The collection of actual specimens of plant and animal species is essential
and is the prime source of taxonomic studies.
5. These are also fundamental to studies and essential for training in
systematics.
6. It is used for classification of an organism, and the information gathered is
also stored along with the specimens.
7. In some cases the specimen is preserved for future studies.
8. Biologists have established certain procedures and techniques to store and
preserve the information as well as the specimens.
9. Examples: Herbarium; Botanical garden, Museum; Zoological parks; key.

19. Herbarium
1. Herbarium is a store house of collected plant specimens that are dried,
pressed and preserved on sheets.
2. Further, these sheets are arranged according to a universally accepted
system of classification.
3. These specimens, along with their descriptions on herbarium sheets,
become a store house or repository for future use.
4. 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.
5. Herbaria also serve as quick referral systems in taxonomical studies.

20. Botanical Gardens

1. These specialised gardens have collections of living plants for reference.
2. Plant species in these gardens are grown for identification purposes and
each plant is labelled indicating its botanical/scientific name and its family.
3. The famous botanical gardens are at Kew (England), Indian Botanical
Garden, Howrah (India) and at National Botanical Research Institute,
Lucknow (India).

21. Biological museums

1. They are generally set up in educational institutes such as schools and
colleges.
2. Museums have collections of preserved plant and animal specimens for
study and reference.
3. Specimens are preserved in the containers or jars in preservative solutions.
4. Plant and animal specimens may also be preserved as dry specimens.
5. Insects are preserved in insect boxes after collecting, killing and pinning.
6. Larger animals like birds and mammals are usually stuffed and preserved.
 22. Zoological parks/ zoo
1. 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.
2. All animals in a zoo are provided, as far as possible, the conditions similar
to their natural habitats.

23. Key
1. The keys are based on the contrasting characters generally in a pair called
couplet.
2. It represents the choice made between two opposite options.
3. This results in acceptance of only one and rejection of the other.
4. Each statement in the key is called a lead.
5. Separate taxonomic keys are required for each taxonomic category such as
family, genus and species for identification purposes.
6. Keys are generally analytical in nature.
7. Flora, manuals, monographs and catalogues are some other means of
recording descriptions.
8. They also help in correct identification.
9. Flora contains the actual account of habitat and distribution of plants of a
given area.
10.These provide the index to the plant species found in a particular area.
11.Manuals are useful in providing information for identification of names of
species found in an area.
12.Monographs contain information on any one taxon.