LIVING BEINGS. PLANTS. MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF LIVING BEINGS: Differences from living beings than lifeless things are that living beings carry out some vital functions, and they are formed by cells. Vital functions are: 1.- NUTRITION: Living beings get nutrients for growth, for development and get energy, and later they expel another useless substances from them. Plants, produce their own nutrients from some inorganic substances like water, minerals and gases, they are called producers. Animals get nutrients from other living beings, (plants or another animals) they are called consumers. And finally, decomposers use dead organisms and non-living organic compounds as their food source (examples are: bacteria, fungi, worms‌)
2.- INTERACTION: Living beings get information from the environment and produce different reactions to them. 3.- REPRODUCTION: All living beings can produce more beings similar to themselves.
CELLS: Cells are the smallest components of living beings. Cells have many different forms: they can be rounded in animals. Cells from plants have polygonal-shaped. There are star-shaped from the nervous system, or flat from the skin‌ They are very small, and we need some devices as a microscope to watch them. All cells carry out all vital functions (they get food, they interacting with the environment, and they reproduce themselves). We can think that they are very different one each other, but all of them has the same structure.
.- CELL MEMBRANE: is a biological membrane that separates the interior of all cells from the outside environment. It basically protects the cell from outside conditions. .- CYTOPLASM: is the gel-like substance residing within the cell membrane holding all the cell’s internal sub-structures (called organelles) and the nucleus. .- ORGANELLES: are specialized subunits that has a specific function (produce different substances, movement…).
.- NUCLEUS: is the most important part and it controls the activities of the cell. Cells from plants are also rounded by a tough cover called CELL WALL offering protection against mechanical stress, and it permits the organism to build and hold its shape.
LIIVING BEINGS ORGANIZATION: Some living beings composed only by one cell are unicellular organism (also known as a single-celled organism), but most of organism are multicellular organisms formed by multiple cells. Cells are very small and for example, in our body we can have ten trillion of them. In multicellular organisms cell form tissues. A tissue is an ensemble of similar cells, that together carry out a specific function. (for instance, muscle cells produce movement). Tissues build organs, like heart, eyes, bones… and organs form systems (all bones form the skeletal system). Finally some systems can be coordinated and form a bigger system (locomotor system is formed by the muscular and skeletal system) that work together.
LIVING BEINGS CLASSIFICATION: FIVE KINGDOMS. We call biodiversity to the variety of living beings that we can find in our planet. To study this biodiversity we classify all beings in five groups or five kingdoms. Each kingdom are formed by living beings with similar characteristics. We can divide these groups in smaller ones. LIVING BEINGS Cells without a nucleus
Cells with a nucleus.
Monera
Kingdom protoctista
Bacteria
Unicellular organisms
Amebas, protozoa… multicellular organisms
Algae
Kingdom Fungi Unicellular
Plant Kingdom
Animal Kingdom
Without flowers
Invertebrates
Yeast Multicellular
Moss and fern With flowers
Insects, mollusk... Vertebrates
Mushrooms and Mold
Grass, trees…
Birds, fish…
1.- MONERA: Bacteria is a kind of monera. They are microscopic unicellular organisms that can live everywhere, even inside our bodies. There are useful bacteria (in our intestine…) and damaging ones that produce many infections. Bacteria
2.- KINGDOM PROTOCTISTA: There is a great variety of microscopic unicellular organisms that live in pools like amebas and other multicellular ones like algae living in the water. These kingdoms (monera and protoctista) are the most simple and primitive organisms.
Ameba Algae
3.- KINGDOM FUNGI: in this group we can find unicellular organism like yeast and multicellular ones like mushrooms and mold. They are decomposers, so they grow on living beings mortal remains. They can’t move.
Yeast
Mushroom
Mold
4.- PLANT KINGDOM: contains living beings that produce their own food from inorganic substances like water and carbon dioxide. They can’t move from the soil. There are two groups: .- Plants without flowers like moss and fern (they reproduce themselves by spores). .- Plants with flowers, like lemon, orange,almond trees, rose bush…
Moss
Fern
orange tree
5.- ANIMAL KINGDOM: we call animals to every being that get its food from other organisms, and can move from one place to another. There are two main groups: .- Invertebrates: animals without spinal column ( insects, mollusk…) .- Vertebrates: animals with spinal column (birds, fish, mammals…)
Insect
bird
mammal
CIRCULATORY SYSTEM:
GLOSARY-VOCABULARY:
Living being: ser vivo
lifless: inerte, sin vida
cell: célula
Nutrition: nutrición
growth: crecimiento
development: desarrollo
Useless: inútil, deshecho
producer: productor
consumer: consumidor
Decomposer: descomponedor
source: fuente de algo
interaction: interacción, relación
Rounded: redondeada
device: aparato
polygonal-shape: forma polygonal
To carry out: llevar a cabo
gel-like: como gel
environment: medio ambiente
Within: en, dentro
tough cover: cubierta dura
cell wall: pared cellular
Multicelular: pluricelular
tissue: tejido
ensemble: conjunto
System: sistema, aparato
biodiversity: biodiversidad
variety: variedad
Algae: alga
yeast: levadura
fungi hongos
mushrooms: setas, champiñones
Mold: moho
moss: musgo
fern: helechos
A kind of: una clase de
everywhere: todas partes
damage: daño, perjudicial
Pools: charca
Soil: suelo
spore: espora
Spinal column: columna vertebral WRITE YOUR OWN WORDS:
mortal remains: restos de cuerpos muertos rose bush: rosal