Skip to content

Book 2 Unit 1

Living Characteristics

  • Cells: A membrane-covered structure that contains all the materials necessary for life
  • Stimulus: A change that affects the activity if an organism is called a stimulus
  • Homeostasis: The maintenance of a stable internal environment

Reproduction

  • DNA: Deoxyribonucleic Acid
  • RNA: Ribonucleic Acid
  • Sexual Reproduction: Two parents produce offspring that share the characteristics of both parents
  • Asexual Reproduction: Each offspring receives an exact copy of the parents DNA

Energy use of Living Things

  • Plants convert energy from the sun into food
  • Other organisms get energy from plants

Growth and Maturing of Living Things

  • Unicellular organisms grows, becomes larger, then divides, forming two cells
  • Multicellular organism grows, number of cells in body increases, organism becomes bigger
  • Develops and changes form and size

What living things need to survive

  • Water
  • Air
  • Food
  • Shelter

How Living Things Get Food

  • Producers produce their own nutrients
  • Some examples of producers are plants and algae
  • Consumers consume other organisms for nutrients
  • Some examples of consumers are Animals such as turtles and lions
  • There are three types of consumers herbivore, Omnivore and Carnivore
  • Decomposers decompose other organisms for nutrients
  • Some examples of decomposers are fungi and bacteria

Darwin’s Voyage

  • Evolution: The process by which population change over time
  • Differences Among Species
    • Darwin observed finches beaks were bigger
  • Artificial Selection: The practice by which humans select plants or animals for breeding based on desired traits

Four Parts of Natural Selection

  • Overproduction
    • When a plant or animal reproduces, it usually makes more offspring than the environment can support
  • Genetic Variation
    • Within a population there are natural differences (aka variations)
  • Selection
    • Adaptation
  • Natural Selection
    • The process by which organisms that inherit advantageous traits tend to reproduce more successfully than other organisms do
    • Variations: When in a population there are differences in traits
    • Mutation: When over time a individual or populations traits change over generations
    • Adaptation: An inherited trait helps an organism survive and reproduce in an environment

Species Changing over time

  • Adaptations: Inherited traits that help organisms survive and reproduce
  • Genetic Difference Add Up
    • Parents and offspring have small genetic differences between them

Environment Change

  • Adaptations can allow a species to survive
  • Some Species May Become
  • Extinct

How do fossils form

  • Organisms changed over time
  • Most fossils form in sedimentary rock
  • Fossil Record
    • All fossils discovered make up a fossil record
  • Fossil: The remains or imprints of once living

  • Similar DNA

    • Cytochrome C Differences Table
    Organism Number of amino acid differences from human cytochrome c
    Chimpanzee 0
    Rhesus Monkey 1
    Whale 10
    Turtle 15
    Bullfrog 18
    Lamprey 20

Fossil

A trace or imprint of a living thing that is preserved by geological processes - Fossil Record: All of the fossils that have been discovered worldwide

Classifying Living Things

  • Physical Characteristics
    • Scientists look at skeletal structure
    • Scientists study how organisms develop from egg to adult
  • Chemical Characteristics
    • Scientists can study genetic material such as DNA and RNA
    • Organisms that have similar gene sequences
    • Proteins and hormones can also characterize organisms
  • Naming living things
    • Species: A group of organisms that are very closely related
    • Genus: Includes similar species
    • Levels of classification
      • DKPCOFGS
        • Do - Domain
        • Koalas - Kingdom
        • Poop - Phylum
        • Cows - Class
        • Or - Order
        • Fantastic - Family
        • Great - Genus
        • Snakes - Species
    • Prokaryotes: Single-celled organisms that lack a nucleus in their cells
    • Eukaryotes: Made up of cells that have a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles
      • More complex than prokaryotes
    • Three Domains
      • Bacteria: Made up of prokaryotes that usually have a cell wall and reproduce by cell division
      • Archaea: Made up of prokaryotes, have different makeup of cell walls and genetics.
      • Eukarya: Made up of all Eukaryotes
        • Protista
          • Single-celled or multicellular organisms such as algae and slime molds
          • "Junk Drawer" Kingdom
        • Plantae
          • Multicellular organisms that have cell walls, mostly made out of cellulose.
          • Make food through process known as photosynthesis
        • Fungi
          • Gets energy by absorbing materials
          • Can reproduce sexually or asexually
        • Animalia
          • Multicellular organisms that lack cell walls
          • Must get nutrients by consuming other organisms

Dichotomous Keys

A series of paired statements to identify organisms