biology seven characteristics of life
Seven characteristics of life
In life, there are seven different characteristics these being; movement, excretion, respiration, reproduction, irritability, nutrition and growth. Below, I will explain each of the characteristics in detail.
Reproduction means; “the production of offspring by a sexual or asexual process” (oxford concise colour medical dictionary, 2007). Animals and plants do this in different ways, animals need two parents, and therefore the offspring will share both of the parent’s genetics. This is known as sexual reproduction. However, there are some exemptions of this such as; some sea life and starfish of which, these only have one parent, these animals share this similarity with plants. Plants only ever have one parent, therefore have no genes to share; this makes them identical to their offspring. Plants can reproduce in many different ways. Two of these ways are; vegetative propagation which is when the plant grows a plantlet which makes the original plant bigger. This happens in some woodland plants and strawberry plants. Another way is when seeds are moved and made by apomixis. An example of this could be, if a dog ate the seeds of an apple, and then excreted it later on; the new seeds would get the nutrients from the ground and be made into a new apple tree. Another way seeds can be moved to a new destination and made into a plant is by the wind, the wind blows seeds from the original plant elsewhere.
Arguably the most obvious characteristic of life is movement. moving or being moved” (oxford concise colour medical dictionary, 2007). Locomotion is a voluntary movement such as running, walking, swimming or flying and is used to reach food, water, shelter or a mate. This is different to movement which can be involuntary. This can be seen by plants leaves turning to face the sun, opening and closing depending on the time of day.
In animals, they get energy from the food they eat, however; this is not enough energy to keep up with
In life, there are seven different characteristics these being; movement, excretion, respiration, reproduction, irritability, nutrition and growth. Below, I will explain each of the characteristics in detail.
Reproduction means; “the production of offspring by a sexual or asexual process” (oxford concise colour medical dictionary, 2007). Animals and plants do this in different ways, animals need two parents, and therefore the offspring will share both of the parent’s genetics. This is known as sexual reproduction. However, there are some exemptions of this such as; some sea life and starfish of which, these only have one parent, these animals share this similarity with plants. Plants only ever have one parent, therefore have no genes to share; this makes them identical to their offspring. Plants can reproduce in many different ways. Two of these ways are; vegetative propagation which is when the plant grows a plantlet which makes the original plant bigger. This happens in some woodland plants and strawberry plants. Another way is when seeds are moved and made by apomixis. An example of this could be, if a dog ate the seeds of an apple, and then excreted it later on; the new seeds would get the nutrients from the ground and be made into a new apple tree. Another way seeds can be moved to a new destination and made into a plant is by the wind, the wind blows seeds from the original plant elsewhere.
Arguably the most obvious characteristic of life is movement. moving or being moved” (oxford concise colour medical dictionary, 2007). Locomotion is a voluntary movement such as running, walking, swimming or flying and is used to reach food, water, shelter or a mate. This is different to movement which can be involuntary. This can be seen by plants leaves turning to face the sun, opening and closing depending on the time of day.
In animals, they get energy from the food they eat, however; this is not enough energy to keep up with
Bibliography: Oxford Concise Colour Medical Dictionary (2007), Oxford University Press 4th Edition. BBC Bitesize (2013) Aerobic and anaerobic respiration, Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_aqa/respiration/respirationrev1.shtml (Accesses 18th September 2013)