Living things are those objects that have life e.g., plants and animals.
Non-living things are those objects without life or lifeless objects.
CHARACTERISTICS OF LIVING THINGS
- MOVEMENT: is defined as the ability of a living organism to move its own body or part of its body from one place to another. Living things move for the following reasons:
– To look for food
– To run away from danger
– To seek a mate in the time of reproduction
– To respond to external stimuli
2. NUTRITION: is defined as the ability of living organisms to feed to enable them to be able to carry out life functions such as growth, respiration, and reproduction. Living things use two methods of nutrition
- Autotrophic/halophytic nutrition: It is a method used by all green plants and some bacteria that involves the manufacture of their food from simple inorganic compounds through a process of photosynthesis.
- Heterotrophic/holozoic nutrition: it is a method strictly used by animals to obtain food from the products of plants. They depend on the food produced by plants directly or indirectly since they cannot manufacture their.
3. RESPIRATION: is defined as a process in which food substances within cells of a living organism are oxidized in the presence of oxygen to release energy for all life processes
4. EXCRETION: This is defined as the removal of poisonous metabolic waste products from the body or cells of a living organism if not excreted will damage the body cells. Metabolism is the total of the chemical processes that take place within the cells of the body of the organism.
5. GROWTH: is defined as a permanent increase in body and mass of an organism or an increase in body complexity as a result of cell division and cell differentiation. Good feeding will lead to an increase in body mass.
7. IRRITABILITY/SENSITIVITY: is defined as the ability of an organism to respond to changes in both internal and external stimuli to include heat, light, pain, water, sound, and chemical substances to which living things respond.
8. REPRODUCTION: This is the ability of living organisms to give rise to new offspring that have the same characteristics as their parents. Reproduction ensures the continuity of the species.
Types of Reproduction
- Sexual reproduction: This involves two organisms of the same species to produce a new offspring
- Asexual reproduction: It involves only one organism to produce another offspring of its kind.
9. ADAPTATION: is defined as the way in which living organisms get used to their various environment in such a manner that they are comfortable in order to survive.
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, mates, etc. in order to survive and be in continuous existence.
11. DEATH: All living things must die because they have a definite and limited period of existence.
Differences Between Plants and Animals
| Plant | Animal |
| 1. Plant growth in the indefinite and apical | Animal growth is definite and interacting, meaning it occurs uniformly in their body
|
| 2. The plant has a slow response to external Stimuli | Animal shows a fast response to external stimuli
|
| 3. Plant stores food as starch, while animals store food as glycogenfungi
|
Animals store food as glycogen |
| 4. The plant has no specialized sense organs
|
Animals have specialized sense organs |
| 5. A plant has no fixed number of parts, and always continues | Animals have a fixed number of parts, which are usually compact |
| 6. Gaseous exchange in a plant is through the entire body | Gaseous exchange is through a special organ |
| 7. Plant cell has a rigid cellulose all wall | Animal cell has a flexible living cell membrane |
| 8. Plant cell has a large vacuole containing sap | Animal cell has small or no vacuoles |
| 9. Plant feed autotrophically | Animal feeds heterotrophically |
| 10. Plant processes no special excretory Organ
|
Animal possesses well-developed excretory system |