Characteristics Of Living Things, Meaning And Examples

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Hi, welcome to this hall on the the topic: Living and non living things and characteristics of living things in biology class 1.

Table Of Contents

  1. Living and non living things
  2. Examples of living things
  3. Characteristics of living things.
  4. Revision Questions

Living And Non Living Things

Everything on earth can be classified as either living or non-living thing. Living things include plants and animals that have life, while non-living things include those things that do not have life.

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Examples Of Living Things

Examples includes: Man, rabbit, hibiscus, elephant, monkey, grass, mango tree, sheep, dog, etc. While examples of non-living things include air, stone, water, table, house, book, pen, etc.

Characteristics Of Living Thing

Living things are distinguished from non-living things by a number of characteristics which include:

  1. Movement
  2. Nutrition
  3. Respiration
  4. Excretion
  5. Irritability or sensitivity
  6. Growth
  7. Reproduction
  8. Adaptation
  9. Lifespan/death
  10. Competition.

1. Movement: Movement is defined as the ability of an organism to move its own whole body or part of its body from one place to another. Living things move in order to look for food, for reproduction and to run away from danger or respond to the environment. Generally, most animals can move themselves from one place to another; while plants can only move part of their bodies in respond to external stimuli.

2. Nutrition: Nutrition is classified as the ability of living things or living organisms to feed. The reason for feeding is to enable living things live and carry out Life processes like growth, respiration and reproduction. While all green plants can manufacture their own food through a process of photosynthesis (i.e, autotrophic or holophytic nutrition), all animals cannot manufacture their own food but depend on plant directly or indirectly for their food; hence this type of nutrition is called heterotrophic or holozoic nutrition.

3. Respiration: Respiration is define as the exchange of gases between organisms and their environment. Living organisms take in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. The purpose of respiration is to burn down or oxidize food substances in order to release energy which is used for all life processes.

4. Excretion: Excretion is defined as the removal of metabolic waste products from the body. The purpose of excretion is to remove waste products of metabolism, e.g. water and carbon dioxide, which are poisonous or toxic to the body. The process of getting rid of this poisonous metabolic waste products from the body is called excretion.

5. Irritability or sensitivity: Irritability is defined as the ability of organisms to respond to stimuli. Living things exhibit sensitivity in order to enable them survive in their environment. Stimuli include heat, light, pain, water, sound and chemical substances to which living things respond.

6. Growth: Growth is defined as an irreversible or permanent increase in size, dry mass or weight of an organism due to the addition of living proton plasmic materials. The purpose of growth is to enable organism to repair or replace damage or old tissues in their bodies. The food eating provide the basis for growth of organisms.

7. Reproduction: Reproduction is defined as the ability of a living organism to give birth to young ones or offspring. The purpose of reproduction is to enable continuity of life, i.e., it enables life to be passed one from one generation to the next. Reproduction occurs in two form:

  • Asexual reproduction: This involves only one organism to produce another offspring.
  • Sexual production: This involves two organisms coming together for the purpose of reproduction.

8. Adaptation: Adaptation is the way living organisms get used to their various environments in such a manner that they would be comfortable. This is done in order to survive.

9. Life span/death: All living things must die because they have a definite and limited period of existence. All living things must pass through these five stages of life namely:

Birth – Growth – Maturity – Decline (old age) – Death.

10. Competition: This is the ability of living things to struggle for all the necessities of life in order to survive in their various environment. Living things compete for food, light, space, water, etc, in order to survive and be in continuous existence.

In summary, all living things carry out all the above characteristics processes, while non-living things cannot.

Revision Questions

  1. What is living And non living things?
  2. Outline six characteristics of living things.
  3. State five examples of living things
  4. And five examples of non-living things
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