Unit 1.

Living beings

1. The Earth: a planet full of life IES MAESTRO HAEDO

2. What is a living thing? Dpto. Ciencias Naturales
3. Cells Prof. Ángel Viñas San Narciso
4. Organization of living things
5. Classification of living beings
6. The five kingdoms
 1. The Earth: a planet full of life
a) The Earth is the planet where we live
− Location:
• Is one of the eight planets which orbit the Sun, the star of
the Solar System.
• The Sun is just one of the billions of stars that form our
galaxy, the Milky Way.
• The Milky Way is just one of the billions of galaxies of the
Universe.
− The four systems or layers of the Earth constantly interacting:
• Geosphere: solid/liquid part, made of rocks.
• Hydrosphere: liquid part, made of water.
• Atmosphere: gaseous part, made of gases (air).
• Biosphere: living part, made of living beings, placed in the
interaction point between the rest of the systems.
Comparing the size of the Sun and the
Earth
– Conditions for life: the Earth is the only planet with life, why?
• Distance to the Sun: its radiation produces light and heat,
the Earth is at the right distance to have mild average
temperatures of 15ºC. “The goldilocks zone”
• Hydrosphere: the mild temperature lets water exist in a
liquid state. Liquid water is essential for living beings and
their environments. Sun’s energy lets water change states
(evaporation, condensation, precipitation…) which move
water all around the Earth (water cycle).
• Atmosphere: with the right composition and thickness
– Thick enough to protect life from harmful solar radiation
– With a composition in oxygen and carbon dioxide needed for
respiration and photosynthesis.
• Climate: is less hostile because we have seasons and a
quick change between day and night.
 2. What is a living thing?
a) Every living being has three things in common:
functions, composition and structure.
b) All living beings perform three vital functions:
− Nutrition:
• Autotrophic: to produce its own food.
• Heterotrophic: to obtain food by eating other organisms.
− Interaction:
• They move towards the food.
• They scape from dangers
– Reproduction:
• Asexual: a living being divides its body in two identical
parts.
• Sexual: two living beings join and fusion to form a new and
different living being
Heterotrophic cell nutrition
Autotrophic nutrition: photosynthesis
Interaction function in cells
Reproduction function
c) Composition: living beings are made of
similar substances.
− Inorganic biomolecules: water (70% of living
matter), mineral salts…
− Organic biomolecules:
• Carbohydrates: provide energy and build the cell wall
• Lipids: store energy and build plasma membrane.
• Proteins: build most cellular components and provide
many different functions to the cells (movement,
transportation, defense…)
• Nucleic acids (DNA): carries genetic information key
for building and directing the cells.
d) Structure: all living beings are made of cells.
− A living being is made of one or more cells.
− A cell is the smallest living thing capable of
performing the 3 vital functions.
 3. CELLS
a) Cell structure:
− Plasmatic membrane: thin external cell cover
− Cytoplasm: inner space cell full of liquid and
organelles
• Organelles: cytoplasmatic structures that
perform the cell vital functions.
– Genetic material (DNA): controls all cellular
activities and functions
b) Prokaryotic cells: DNA is placed in the
cytoplasm
– They are the smallest and simplest cells
– They do not have a nucleus
– They do not have organelles. They only have
ribosomes that produce proteins
– Some of them have a flagellum/flagella
– They form bacterial organisms from Monera
kingdom
c) Eukaryotic cells: DNA is placed in nucleus
− They are bigger and more complex than
prokaryotic cells.
− They have a nucleus.
− They have organelles in their cytoplasm:
• Mitochondria: produce energy for the cell
• Vacuoles: store substances
• Ribosomes: produce proteins
• Endoplasmic reticulum (Rough and smooth):
produces substances (proteins and lipids)
• Golgi apparatus: controls the transit of
vesicles with different types of substances
• Chloroplasts: perform photosynthesis
– There are two types of eukaryotic cells:
• Eukaryotic animal cells: they do not have
chloroplasts, so they have a heterotrophic
nutrition.
• Eukaryotic plant cells: they have a cellular wall
and chloroplasts, so they have an autotrophic
nutrition.
• They form the protoctist, fungus, plant and
animal organisms.
Prokaryotic cell: a bacteria
Eukaryotic animal cell
Eukaryotic plant cell
Cell nº 1
Cell nº 2
Cell nº 3
Cell nº 4
Cell Nº 5
Cell nº 6
 4. Organization of living things
a) Living things are classified based on their cell
number:
− Unicellular organisms: one single cell performs all
three vital functions.
− Multicellular organisms: they are composed of many
cells
• They develop from one initial cell.
• As the organism grows, its cells differentiate into different
shapes and functions to form the adult organism.
• Cells work in coordination
• In a multicellular organism, the same type of cells join to
form tissues, tissues form organs that organize into
systems
b) Levels of organization of an organism:
– Level 1: Unicellular organism
– Level 2: Multicellular without tissues
– Level 3: Multicellular with tissues without organs
– Level 4: Multicellular with organs without
systems
– Level 5: Multicellular with systems
Paramecium
Cellular differentiation
Level 1: unicellular and colonial
Level 2: Multicellular without tissues
Level 3: Multicellular with tissues
Level 4: Multicellular with organs
 5. Classification of living beings
a) Introduction: scientists classify living things into taxa
in order to facilitate its study.
b) Taxonomic groups:
− Taxon (pl. taxa): any unit (group) used in the science of
biological classification, or taxonomy.
− Taxa are arranged in a hierarchy from kingdom to species.
A taxon includes several taxa of lower rank.
− Taxonomic ranks (=taxa): higher ranks include more living
things but the higher the rank, the fewer characteristics
they share.
− Taxa are:
Kingdom>phylum>class>order>family>genus>species
c) The species:
– Scientific naming system for the different species
was established by Carl Von Linnaeus
– Scientific names help us to identify species in
different languages.
– Scientific names consist of two words in Latin
– The first word is for genus
– The second name is for species
– For instance: Canis lupus = wolf / lobo
 6. THE FIVE KINGDOMS
KINGDOM
CELL
5. The
TYPE OF
five kingdoms
ORGANIZATION NUTRITION
LEVEL
LOCOMOTION EXAMPLES

MONERA Prokaryotic Unicellular Heterotrophs By flagellum Bacteria

(colonies) and (If present)
(up to level 1) Autotrophs
PROTOCTIST Eukaryotic Unicellular Heterotrophs By flagellum Protozoa
and and (If present) and
Multicellular algae Autotrophs Algae
(up to level 2)
FUNGI Eukaryotic Unicellular Heterotrophs NO Yeasts
and (decomposers) Mould
Multicellular Mushrooms
(up to level 2)
PLANT Eukaryotic Multicellular Photosynthetic NO Mosses
(up to level 4) Autotrophs Ferns
Trees
ANIMAL Eukaryotic Multicellular Heterotrophs YES Invertebrates
(up to level 5) (predators)
Protozoa
Unicellular algae
Multicellular algae
Fungi Yeast (unicellular)
Fungi Mushroom (multicellular)
Animals