The Living World Notes Class 11 Biology Chapter 1
→ There is lots of variety in the living world i.e., flora and fauna. They exhibit distinctive characteristics like growth, reproduction, metabolism, etc.
→ In the past, man could not perceive the difference between inanimate matter and living organisms.
→ A common feature of inanimate and animate objects was the sense of awe that they evolved.
→ Biologists indulged in the anthropocentric view of biology could register limited progress in biological knowledge.
→ The curiosity to study life forms in detail bought in systems of identification, nomenclature, and classification.
→ The biggest gain from these studies was the recognition of the sharing of similarities among living organisms.
→ The conservation of biodiversity started when a man came to know that all living organisms are related to one another.
→ The wide range of living types is amazing. Living organisms are found in all types of habitats be its cold mountains, deciduous forests, oceans, freshwater lakes, deserts or hot springs, etc.
→ Growth, reproduction, metabolism, self-replicate self-organize, interaction, and the ability to sense the environment are some unique features of living organisms.
→ In order to study the diversity of organisms a new branch of biology is evolved which is called Taxonomy, Taxonomists have developed inter-national codes, Taxonomic aids, and keys that help them in identification naming, and classification of organisms.
→ Taxonomic studies in various species of plants, animals, etc. are useful in important fields such as agriculture, forestry, industry, and in knowing our bioresources and their diversity.
→ With the development of science and technology, biologists have established certain procedures and techniques to store and preserve the information of different species which will be helpful to understand and study them.
→ Classification: The method of systematically arranging the dif¬ferent species of living organisms on the basis of similarities and differences in various groups is called classification.
→ Taxonomy: The branch of science which deals in the study of the diversity and kind of organisms and the evolutionary relationships among them.
→ Species: refer to a group of organisms that resemble each other interbreed and produce fertile off-springs.
→ Genus: A group of related species which has more characters in common in comparison to species of other genera.
→ Family: A group of the related genres with still fewer similarities as compared to genus and species.
→ Order: Categories like species, genus, and families are based on a number of similar characters. This is referred to as order.
→ Class: Category which includes related orders.
→ Phylum: A higher category that consists of classes comprising of animals such as fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds along with mammals.
→ Kingdom: The highest category which consists of all animals belonging to various phyla.
→ Botanical garden: Specialised gardens having collections of living plants for reference.
→ Taxonomic keys: Tools that help in identification based on characteristics.