Characteristics of Living Beings

Living beings are biological organisms, which have the ability to relate to the environment, and everything it represents. They arise as a result of an extremely precise organizational process; that is to say that within them there are different activities, which in turn, are related to each other.

Each organism, to be called as such, needs to establish a stable way, and feedback that allows, that allows creating a sustainable and stable bridge between it and the environment that surrounds it, with total naturalness. Each living being is made up of cells this is the fundamental unit of all life, some organisms can be unicellular or multicellular.

Below is a brief explanation of what each represents:

• Unicellular: they are those in which all vital functions are carried out, with a single cell. In this type of organisms, there are two types of cellular organization, prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
• Multicellular: are all those organisms, formed by several cells.

Characteristics of living beings

The relationship between living beings is of the utmost importance, since according to it, a living being can be differentiated from something else that may not be. This basically means that they have the ability to relate to the environment, and at the same time, easily adapt to any change that arises.

Likewise, they can perceive stimuli, linked to light, smells, sounds, water, among others. These things show, one of the greatest qualities that these organisms possess, is that they are not static, but on the contrary, they are constantly in motion.

Homeostasis is the process through which each living being can maintain its internal balance, and which in turn allows it to protect its vital functions, when there is any failure in these, it automatically becomes ill, and even in extreme cases dies.

On the other hand, through metabolism, organisms can process each of the nutrients found in the environment, thus recovering their energy. There are two important features that are developed within this function:

• Anabolism: which is when the basic substances, or simple nutrients, are converted into more complex substances?
• Catabolism: happens when these complex substances of the consumed nutrients are converted into much smaller molecules, with the help of enzymes, and this process produces a higher level of energy in the body. Growth and development: as the internal structure of living things increases, through nutrients, they grow as a result of the development of their metabolism. This development represents a step to acquire new features.

 Reproduction types

The ability to reproduce is another great characteristic of living beings. Reproduction concerns multiplication as a primordial part of life; this gives rise to the birth of other beings similar to their parents, which in turn ensure the survival of the species.

• Asexual: is when a single organism has the ability to procreate other organisms by itself, these new individuals are an exact copy, genetically speaking, of their parent.  This means that there is no DNA; a clear example of this is when a bacterium is divided in two.
• Sexual: this type of reproduction only occurs when there is a union between two individuals of opposite sexes. These beings are genetically different from their parents, and generally different from each other.
• Adaptation: for living beings to become what they are today, they had to undergo an enormous number of changes, which took place over millions of years. This is considered as evolutionary process. This ease of change is what is now known as adaptation.

Vital functions

There are three processes, which are considered as vital functions: nutrition, respiration and reproduction.

Each individual has the ability to exchange energy with the environment that surrounds them, that is, they take from said environment all the nutrients they need to survive, but at the same time expel a large amount of waste, so that this function develops with normally, it is necessary that the following processes occur:

• Ingestion: it is when a whole quantity of nutrients enters the body, which after going through the digestion process, become a reusable energy source for the cells.
• Metabolism: they are a series of chemical reactions that take place in the organism, and that in turn allow to extract all the necessary energy, to be able to live.
• Excretion: it is the natural expulsion, which the body carries out to the outside; we can mention not only excretion, which is when waste such as sweat, urine, or carbon dioxide is expelled; but also the secretion, which leads to the expulsion of some substances, which are useful for the body such as saliva, tears, among others.
• Breathing function:

It is a common function in all living cells, and consists of gas exchange, oxygen absorption, and carbon dioxide expulsion. This process renews the oxygen in each cell of the organism, for which it is very important.

As we mentioned before, the reproduction of living beings gives life to other beings, similar in their anatomy. This is not essential for the survival of a living being, but it is essential for the maintenance of life, since otherwise there is a risk of extinction of the species, whether animal, plant, or human.

The classification of living beings depends on all these characteristics that we have presented to you. Below we present more information about it.

Instructions

There are millions of different species in the world, each of them is classified into very large groups, which have been called kingdoms; there are five kingdoms in all. Next, we present each one clearly and precisely so that you can identify which of them each species belongs to.

1. Animal kingdom: they stand out for being multicellular; they feed on other living beings, because they cannot make their own food through simple substances, as is the case with plants. Most of them have the ability to move from one place to another, with total normality, they have sense organs, as well as a moderately complex nervous system; for this reason, they react quickly to the changes they manage to capture in their environment.
2. Plant kingdom: they are also multicellular, although they are capable of producing their own food, by means of simple substances such as mineral salts, air and water. All this they do with the help of sunlight, therefore they do not need to feed on others.  They do not have a nervous system or any kind of senses; however they are moved by some stimuli, including the sun.
3. Kingdom fungi: there are different types, including mushrooms, molds and yeasts.  Therefore, their cell count can vary, since while yeasts are unicellular, mushrooms and molds are multicellular. They usually feed on other decomposing living beings, such as wood, manure, leaves, among others. They live in one fixed place.
4. Kingdom protoctista: this includes the algae and the protozoa, although it is interesting that both species are so different from each other. Algae are unicellular and some other multicellular, they create their food in the same way as plants; they live in seas, rivers. Protozoa, on the other hand, are unicellular; they live in water, inside other living beings, and even in the soil. When they lodge in other living beings, they usually cause diseases.
5. Moneta kingdom: they are unicellular bacteria; they stand out because they can live in different places, the interior of other living beings, the soil, the air and the water. Many of them are beneficial to people, but others, on the contrary, are harmful, since they cause diseases.

What do you need:

• To be able to identify a living being, you only need to know the general characteristics of living beings that we have explained in this post.
• To identify the species, it is necessary that you first place it in the appropriate kingdom.
• By studying evolutionary theory you will be able to obtain more information.

Tips

If it is still not clear to you which kingdom we belong to as living beings or you would like to know a little more about the human being as a species, here are some interesting facts so that you can relate man to the characteristics of living beings that you previously learned about. We explain.

1. Humanization is the process of evolution at the biological level of human beings. From millions of years ago to the present. Seen from this point of view, the concept of man refers to the individuals that are part of the Homo sapiens species.  Studies affirm that according to molecular and morphological evidence, the species most similar to human beings are
2. Experts affirm that human evolution is the study of lineage; this of course includes all the species closest to man, many of which are already extinct.
3. Taxonomy is responsible for classifying each organism, from this point; the definition of species is seen under the criterion that individuals have the ability to reproduce, giving rise to fertile offspring. However, the fossil records that are available pose a major problem as the reproductive capacity of extinct organisms cannot be studied.
4. All this makes defining a species, from a paleontological point of view, extremely complex. For this reason, the study of human evolution has become a challenge, both scientific and political; due to the fact that two sides have been created, one made up of the so-called grouping paleontologists, and the dividers. However, it is quite true that most paleontologists are located at a midpoint between both currents of research.
5. As the human genome has been studied, with the new advances that science has given in recent times, it has become evident that there are several aspects worth highlighting, one of them is that homo sapiens shares the 99 % of the genes with the chimpanzee, which means that basically any man has only a small difference of 1.24% with respect to the chimpanzee genome, and 1.62% in relation to the gorilla genome.

Early homos   

It is not yet known with certainty what species the first homos came from, although for a long time, it has been considered that the hominids belong to the homo genus, which were capable of making stone-based hand tools from this period, Two species stand out, Homo rudolfensis and Homo hails, they inhabited East Africa between 2.5 and 1.8 million years, they had a cranial volume of between 650 and 800 cm³.

In conclusion, there is much that remains to be said about living beings and their evolution, and without a doubt it constitutes one of the most fascinating topics, worthy of study and analysis. Since it allows us to see ourselves thoroughly, in contrast to everything that surrounds us.