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An organism is any living thing that functions as an individual. [1] Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have been proposed to define what an organism is.
Living things require energy for homeostasis and other activities. Growth: maintenance of a higher rate of anabolism than catabolism. A growing organism increases in size and structure. Adaptation: the evolutionary process whereby an organism becomes better able to live in its habitat. [18] [19] [20]
This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, the other being physical science, which is concerned with non-living matter. Biology is the overall natural science that studies life, with the other life sciences as its sub-disciplines. Some life sciences focus on a specific type of organism.
A small fraction of the genes in an organism's genome called the developmental-genetic toolkit control the development of that organism. These toolkit genes are highly conserved among phyla, meaning that they are ancient and very similar in widely separated groups of animals. Differences in deployment of toolkit genes affect the body plan and ...
The roots for the binomial name are crassus (thick, fat) and rupestris (living on cliffs or rocks) This list of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names is intended to help those unfamiliar with classical languages to understand and remember the scientific names of organisms.
The tree of life or universal tree of life is a metaphor, conceptual model, and research tool used to explore the evolution of life and describe the relationships between organisms, both living and extinct, as described in a famous passage in Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859). [1]
A microorganism, or microbe, [a] is an organism of microscopic size, which may exist in its single-celled form or as a colony of cells.. The possible existence of unseen microbial life was suspected from ancient times, such as in Jain scriptures from sixth century BC India.
Among other factors, the diversity of all living things depends on temperature, precipitation, altitude, soils, geography and the interactions between other species. [72] The study of the spatial distribution of organisms, species and ecosystems, is the science of biogeography. [73] [74]