Classification

There are five main groups of living things: Prokaryotae (prokaryotes), Protoctista (protoctists), Fungi (fungi), Animalia (animals), and Plantae (plants). Each of the organisms can then be split into the following groupings Kingdom, Phylum, Class Order, Family Genus Species.

Classification Table for Animals

Phylum Cnidaria (jellyfish) Platyhelminthes (Flatworms) Sessile/Motile Sessile Motile Symmetry Radially Bilaterally Bilaterally (cephalisation) As above Coelomate Diploblastic Triploblastic Triploblastic Triploblastic Blood System Open Open Closed Closed

Annelida Motile (segmented worms) Chordata Motile

Prokaryotes

Growth and reproduction

The nuclear material of a bacterium consists of a closed loop of DNA, the bacterial chromosome, which is usually concentrated into a small area of the cell. There is no nuclear membrane and the DNA is not combined with histone protein as in eukaryotic cells. Escherichia coli (E. coli)see above. In suitable conditions, protein synthesis is extremely rapid and each bacterium divides by binary fission as often as once every 20 minutes. Replication of DNA produces new loops each of which becomes attached to a mesosome. As the cell grows, the loops are moved farther apart, so that each daughter cell receives its own copy of the cell's genetic instructions (see below). In fast growing cultures, replication of the DNA starts again before division is complete, helping to shorten the generation time. Rapid reproduction is favoured by natural selection for it allows bacteria to exploit any available food supply effectively in competition with other organisms.

Reproduction in bacteria is almost invariably asexual but a few species have evolved a primitive method of sexual reproduction, which leads to genetic recombination. Conjugation in E. coli occurs when two cells become linked by means of tubular sex pili through which DNA may be transferred. Sometimes, the DNA becomes incorporated into the chromosome loop of the recipient cell so that it will be replicated along with the rest of the cell's genetic instructions and transmitted to the daughter cells of future generations. In this way, the genotypes of some cells are permanently altered.

Protoctista
The kingdom Protoctista is a diverse collection of eukaryotic organisms. It contains all unicellular eukaryotes and their direct multicellular descendants. All protoctists therefore have a nucleus bound by a double membrane. The main protoctistan phyla are shown below, namely:

Algae and protozoa . Cellular structure and organisation

As most protoctists are unicellular, they are regarded as the simplest organisms. However, the cells of some unicellular protoctists, such as surprising, because each cell is a complete entire plant, animal, or fungus. Many protoctists consist of colonies or filaments of cells. Some, like those below, are very simple, with the cells being almost identical to protoctists, certain cells and regions have become each other. In other specialised and interdependent. eukaryotic Paramecium

(below), are among the most complex in the living world. This is not really eukaryotic organism equivalent to an

For example, Fucus vesiculosus, commonly known as bladderwrack, is a relatively large and complex brown alga. Its body is differentiated into a holdfast, stipe and fronds . Although these regions carry out different functions, they are specialised as the true roots, stems, or leaves of plants . not as

Importance of Protoctista
Apart from having a well defined nucleus, protoctists have little else in common except that they do not fit neatly into the three eukaryotic kingdoms. Some biologists regard the Protoctists as the least secure of the five kingdoms, devised mainly for the classification of awkward organisms which do not fit easily into any other kingdom. The paramecium is a heterotroph, while the algae is an autotroph .

Fungi

Do not write the following: When all of life was classified into either the plant kingdom or the animal kingdom, fungi presented a particular problem. They were usually included in the plant kingdom because, like plants, they are mainly sessile and they have cell walls. But unlike plants, fungi have no chlorophyll, no cellulose in their cell walls, and are unable to photosynthesise. Nutritionally, they are more like animals; they are heterotrophic organisms, which obtain complex nutrients from their environment. However, unlike most animals, they cannot ingest large particles of food and digest them inside the body; they absorb their nutrients from outside the body. They must therefore live in/ on their food source, which is either a dead or a living organism, and the food has to be made soluble before it can be absorbed. Fungi differ from both plants and animals in so many ways that the five-kingdom classification gives them a kingdom of their own.

Kingdom Fungi
Fungi share the following characteristic features: They have eukaryotic cells with a rigid, protective cell wall. The wall is chitin; it does not contain cellulose structures). They cannot photosynthesise; they are lysotrophs (heterotrophs) feeding powerful digestion saprotrophically, digesting their food extracellularly by secreting hydrolytic enzymes. They then absorb the soluble products of through their cell walls and into their hyphae . . hyphae (thread-like Their body is usually organised into multinucleate made of

 Carbohydrate stores, when present, consist of glycogen, not starch. They produce very large numbers of tiny reproductive spores which have flagella. Sometimes the spores are produced asexually, sometimes sexually. crossno

The main body of a mushroom consists of septate hyphae (hyphae with walls) which lie on or in the substrate (for example, cow dung or soil). Collectively, the mass of hyphae is called a mycelium.

nutrient-rich

Plantae
Plants have the following characteristics: They are multicellular. They have eukaryotic cells with cellulose cell walls. They feed by photosynthesis: some cells contain chloroplasts.

Most plants store carbohydrates as starch or sucrose

. During the course of their

evolution, plants have become increasingly adapted to life on land. This is reflected in the lives of the two plant phyla that we shall examine. The phyla are Bryophyta (liverworts and mosses ) and Tracheophytes, which includes:

Filicinophyta ( ferns ),
Coniferophyta (conifers), and

Angiospermophyta (flowering plants or angiosperms ).

Bryophyta Plants have life cycles very different from ours. We exist as a diploid most of our lives; the only haploid stage in our life cycle is a life cycle of sexually reproducing land plants has two haploid stage which produces gametes, called the diploid stage which produces spores, called the organism for

sperm or egg cell. The

distinct stages or generations: a

gametophyte generation; and a sporophyte generation. Gametes,

like their parent cells, are haploid and are produced by mitosis (in contrast with gamete production in animals which is by meiosis). When a female gamete is fertilised by a male gamete, a diploid zygote is formed. This grows up into a diploid sporophyte which produces haploid spores by meiosis. In appropriate conditions, these spores germinate into the gametophyte generation, thus opportunities to produce large numbers of offspring: The gametophyte undergoes sexual reproduction to produce gametes fuse to form zygotes. The sporophyte undergoes asexual reproduction to produce spores. which completing the life cycle (figure 1). This alternation of generations provides plants with two

The gametophyte and sporophyte generations are always very different, and one is always larger and more conspicuous than the other. In seed plants (conifers and flowering plants), alternation of generations is not obvious, but it still happens. In bryophytes and ferns, both stages are clearly visible. Kingdom Plantae; phylum Bryophyta (bryophytes) Bryophytes (liverworts, hornworts, and mosses) have the following characteristic features: The gametophyte generation is much more conspicuous and lasts longer than the sporophyte generation (this can be seen in the life cycle moss Funaria hygrometrica, figure 2). The body is anchored in the substrate by rhizoids, not roots (rhizoids are haploid, filamentous outgrowths of the gametophyte; roots are diploid). They do not have true stems or leaves (like the rhizoids, the so-called 'leaves' of mosses are haploid and are not homologous to true leaves, which are diploid). They have no true vascular system (they lack xylem and phloem).
Fig 1

of the

fig 2

ANG I OS P ERMOP HYTA

These are the dominant plants of the world: dicotyledons and one-quarter are monocotyledons. They vary in form from simple duckweed through herbaceous and shrubby plants to trees such as the chestnut and oak. Their evolution has closely paralleled that of the insects on which many species depend for pollination. They are extremely well suited to life on land e.g. efficient water-carrying xylem vessels and in their reproduction e.g. seeds). Angiosperms are man's most important food plants; they include the cereals, vegetables, succulent fruits and sugar cane. As well as providing food for man's domesticated animals in grasses and clover, they are a source of oils, insecticides and drugs. In addition, since they cover such a large proportion of the land, they are significant primary producers and replenish the oxygen in the atmosphere. Two classes of angiosperms are recognised, the Dicotyledonae and the Monocotyledonae.

Kingdom Animalia phylum Cnidaria (cnidarians)

Cnidarians (the 'c' is silent) have the following characteristic features:

They are diploblastic animals: they have two cell layers separated by
mesogloea (a jelly-like, non-cellular layer). They have nematoblasts (stinging cells). They are radially symmetrical. They have tentacles.

Cnidarians include sea anemones, jellyfish, corals, and hydras. Cnidarians are radially symmetrical and many are brightly coloured, giving them a plant-like appearance. This belies their true nature for cnidarians are animals and some, such as the Portuguese man-of-war, are among the most deadly predators in the seas.

Cnidarian body plan

Cnidarians are soft-bodied animals that can exist in two forms: as a medusa (See below). Typically, a polyp spends most of its polyp or as a time attached to the

substrate (such as a rock). It has a tubular body, usually with a mouth and a ring of tentacles on top. In contrast, a medusa is a free-swimming bell- or saucer-shaped individual with a tube hanging down in the centre; the tube ends in a mouth and tentacles u sually line the edge of the bell. Sea anemones are polyps while jellyfish are medusae. In addition to being radially symmetrical, cnidarians are which forms the epidermis, and an inner layer or diploblastic. This means r ectoderm

that they have a body wall made of two layers of cells: an outer layer o

endoderm which forms the

internal structures. The mesogloea (a non-cellular jelly-li ke layer through which cells are able to migrate) separates the ectoderm from the endoderm. In jellyfish, the watery mesogloea forms a large part of the body and acts as a hydrostatic skeleton. The body wall of cnidarians encloses a mouth, usually surrounded by tentacles, which adds into a gut cavity or enteron. There is no anus; the mouth acts as both the entry point for ingested food and as the exit point for egested material.

Coordination in cnidarians
This tissue level of organisation enables cells to act together in a relatively coordinated manner, carrying out various functions much more efficiently, stinging cells known as nematoblasts occur in the ectoderm of tentacles. used to capture prey and to defend against When touched or stimulated with a chemical, these can discharge different types of threads which are predators. One type of nematoblast can inject toxin into a prey or predator, single nematoblast would probably have little effect, but a battery of them in deliver enough toxin to paralyse or even kill a small animal. Toxins induced by some jellyfish and corals produce severe pain in humans. There are contractile muscle-like fibrils in the ectoderm and endoderm in cnidarians, and the gut cavity acts as a hydrostatic skeleton against which the

muscle fibrils act. On its own, a single fibril would produce little force, but the combined action of many fibrils can produce strong contractions.

Platyhelminthes

Platyhelminths (flatworms) have the following characteristic features: They are flat, unsegmented , bilaterally symmetrical animals. They have three layers of cells (they are Most have a mouth, but no anus. They are usually hermaphrodites with a complex reproductive system. All animals except sponges and cnidarians develop from a threelayered embryo triploblastic).

and are called triploblastic. The three body layers are the ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm. The mesoderm, found between the ectoderm on the outside and the endoderm on the inside, forms the bulk of the body and gives rise to many important body structures including true muscles. Whereas cnidarians show a tissue level of organisation, flatworms and all other animals (except sponges) have an organ level of organisation. Each organ is made up of different types of tissue, which work together to carry out a specific role.

Flatworms have only one body cavity, the gut or enteron. Most other triploblastic animals have a second body cavity called the which the organs are suspended (see later). flatworms have their organs and solid appearance. Blood vessels evolved from the mesodermal lining of the coelom and lie within the coelom, so flatworms have not evolved a blood vascular system. Their flattened shape, however, means that they have a large the body by simple diffusion alone. enough surface area to volume ratio for gases to be exchanged with the environment and transported in coelom. This is a fluid-filled space in Being acoelomate (without a coelom),

simply crammed in the body, giving it a fairly dense

Annelids

Annelida (annelids, segmented worms) Annelids have the following characteristic feature: They are worm-like animals that are clearly segmented. Annelids include marine earthworms, and leeches . Like platyhelminths. annelids are triploblastic and bilaterally symmetrical, but unlike platyhelminths they are segmented, they have a second body cavity (the coelom), and they have a through gut (a gut with both a mouth and an anus). This has allowed different gut regions to carry out different digestive functions, improving efficiency. Segmentation The most noticeable feature about annelids is the ringing of the body (Annelida means 'ringed'). The ringing is called segmentation, and each ring is called a segment. Segmentation may have evolved in worms as an adaptation that improved their ability to burrow. This would have allowed them to escape from predators, avoid adverse environmental conditions, and exploit new environment. However, in many other worms, certain segments contain specialised structures such as reproductive organs.

The ability to use separate parts of the body for particular functions may be one reason for the success of segmentation.

Chordata The chordates include the vertebrates and some less well-known invertebrates, such as sea squirts. Members of the Phylum Chordata have a notochord, or stiffening rod. This is a skeletal rod is made of tightly packed cells and forms a rigid internal support. The vertebrates are a subgroup of the chordates in which the notochord has been replaced by a bony backbone. The backbone consists of separate structures called vertebrae. Within the mesoderm there are the well differentiated digestive system, the reproductive system, the circulatory system and excretory system.

Zoologists classify vertebrates into 5 main groups, which are covered in detail below. Fish. The 30 000 species of fish are divided into 3 recognised classes: the

bony fish(class osteichthyes), the cartilaginous fish (class chondrichytes) and the jawless fish (class agnatha). The class chondricthyes includes the largest of all fish the whale shark. Other members are ordinary sharks, dogfish and rays. All have fleshy fins and a skeleton made from cartilage. The class osteichthyes includes most of the familiar fish, such as salmon, tuna, stickleback, piranha and cichlids. They have a bony skeleton, fins an operculum (gill cover) and a swim bladder. The class agnatha includes what is left of a very primitive group of jawless fish, including the lampreys and hagfish, which are eel-like parasites of other fish. Amphibia. There are 4 000 species of amphibians, which include frogs, toads,

newts and salamanders. All members of this class have soft, permeable skin that can be used for gas exchange but that leaves the animal vulnerable to water loss, so most amphibians live in moist habitats. They depend on water for reproduction. Eggs hatch into aquatic larvae, tadpoles, which have external gills. Most species undergo

metamorphosis (change of form) into land-living adults that have lungs. Adults use their entire skin, mouth and lung surface for gas exchange. Reptiles. The 6 500 species of reptile consists of four main groups : the snakes,

lizards, crocodilians and turtles/tortoises. Reptiles have developed ways of minimising water loss and have become truly terrestrial (land living). They have waterproof scales, made largely of keratin, and they lay eggs that can be incubated on land. These eggs have protective leathery shells and internal membranes that are permeable to oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapour. Birds. All 9 000 species of bird have beaks, feathers, lay eggs and are

endotherms (warm blooded). Many can fly and most have scaly legs and feet. The skeletons of birds and reptiles are very similar, and the chemical composition of feathers is virtually identical to reptilian scales, all of which indicates that these two classes descended from a common ancestor. Mammalia. The name mammal is derived from mamma which means milk gland.

All 4 000 species of mammal feed their young on milk. They are also endothermic (warm blooded) and have fur. Mammals protect their developing embryos in 3 different ways: this difference is used to divide them into 3 sub-classes. All of the chordates are either predators, omnivores or herbivores. All of the digestion is extracellular. The digestive system is well differentiated and the organisms have both an anus and a mouth.