Diversity in Living Organisms

BIODIVERSITY : DIVERSITY OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS

BIODiversity-----. Rosen in 1986.
Biodiversity refers to the diverse or varied forms of living beings which differ from one
another in external appearance, size, colour pattern, internal structure, nutrition, behaviour,
habitat, etc.
Types of Species Diversity
1. Point diversity. This is a diversity present on the smallest scale, i.e., the diversity of micro-
habitat.
2. Alpha diversity. Also known as local diversity and includes variety of organisms local to a
particular habitat.
3. Gamma diversity. It represents the diversity of a larger unit such as an island or a
landscape.
4. Epsilon diversity. It is also called regional diversity and includes total diversity of a group
of gamma diversity
For example, a single plant may be considered as a unit of alpha diversity ; a leaf as an area
of point diversity; a group of plants occurring together as an area of gamma diversity and
the forest within which the plants are located as an area of epsilon diversity.
SPECIAL:- India is one of the 12 megabiodiversity countries in the world. The country is
divided into 10 biogeographical regions.
BASIC ISSUES IN SCIENTIFIC NAMING
Taxonomy is a biological science which deals with the identification, nomenclature and
classification of organisms. One of the functions of a taxonomist or systematist is to provide
a scientific name for every living creature.
Binominal Nomenclature: In biology, every organism is given two proper names. First is the
name of the genus to which an organism belongs. An organism’s second name is the name
of the species to which it belongs.
As per the convention, the genus name (generic name) is always written first with its first
letter capitalised. Species name (specific name) is written after the genus name and its first
letter is always in small case.
Rana tigrina = Frog
(Genus) (species)

SPECIAL:- The tiger’s proper name is Panthera tigris, leopard’s is Panthera pardus and snow
leopard’s Panthera uncia. The scientific name of human species is Homo sapiens, where
Homo is a generic name and sapiens is a specific name.

SPECIAL:- Linnaeus has been considered as the “father of taxonomy”,

BASIS OF CLASSIFICATION
The method of arranging organisms into groups or sets on the basis of similarities and
differences is called classification
Importance of Classification
The science of classification is known as taxonomy. Classification of living organisms has the
following advantages :
1. Classification makes the study of a wide variety of organisms easy.
2. Classification projects before us a picture of all life forms at a glance.
3. Classification is essential to understand the interrelationships among different groups of
organisms.
4. Classification forms a base for the development of other biological sciences. For example
biogeography which is the study of geographical distribution of plants and animals
totally dependent on the information supplied by classification.
CLASSIFICATION AND EVOLUTION
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) first described this idea of evolution in his book ‘The Origin of
Species’,
EVOLUTION-Most life forms that we see today have arisen by an accumulation of changes in
its body design that allow the organism possessing them to survive better .
Classification Systems

A. Two-kingdom system of classification.:-----plants and animals are divided

into two groups – Plants kingdom and Animal kingdom. This system of classification
was first suggested by Carolus Linnaeus in 1758.

(READ THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PLANT AND ANIMAL TISSUE FROM PREVIOUS NOTES)

B. Five-kingdom system of classification. Whittaker (1959) :----has classified the

living organisms into following five kingdoms (= broad categories) :
1. Kingdom Monera (Prokaryotic bacteria and blue green algae).
2. Kingdom Protista (Unicellular eukaryotic organisms– protozoans, fungi and algae).
3. Kingdom Fungi (Multinucleate higher fungi).
4. Kingdom Plantae (Multicellular green plants and advanced algae).
5. Kingdom Animalia (Multicellular animals).

SPECIAL:- Carl Woese (1977) further divided Kingdom Monera into Archaebacteria (or
Archaea) and Eubacteria (or Bacteria).
Modern Scheme of Five-Kingdom Classification
In 1982, Margulis and Schwartz revised the five kingdom classification. It includes one
prokaryotic kingdom – the Prokaryotae and four eukaryotic kingdoms – the Protocista, the
Fungi, the Plantae and the Animalia. This scheme is widely accepted one. The eukaryotes
can be regarded as belonging to super kingdom the Eukaryotae
HIERARCHY OF CATEGORIES OR GROUPS
The main aim of a taxonomic study is to assign organism an appropriate place within the
systematic framework of classification. This framework is called taxonomic hierarchy by
which the taxonomic groups are arranged in a definite order, from higher to lower
categories. A category is called taxon (plural taxa).
1. Species. It is a basic unit for understanding taxonomy as well as evolution. Species is a
group of individuals with similar morphological characters, which are able to breed among
themselves and produce fertile offsprings of their own kind.
Example. Horse and ass belong to the same genera (Equus) but both have different species,
i.e., Horse – E. cabalus and Ass – E. asinus
2. Genus. It is a group of species which are related and have less characters in common as
compared to species. Members of a genus have identical reproductive organs.
Example. Banyan and fig trees differ from each other in vegetative characters such as shape,
size and surface of leaf, but resemble in their reproductive organs such as inflorescence,
flower, fruit and seed. Thus, they belong to the same genus Ficus.
3. Family. It is represented by a group of related genera that are more similar to each other
than with the genera of other families.
Example. A cat (Felis domestica) and a lion (Panthera leo) belong to the “cat” family Felidae.
They both possess similar structure and have retractive claws.
4. Order. It is an assemblage of families resembling one another in a few characters.
Example. A tiger (Panthera tigris) and a wolf (Cannis lupus) share the common
characteristics such as jaws with powerful incisors and large, sharp canines, adapted for
flesh-eating. Hence, both are placed in the same order Carnivora.
5. Class. It represents organisms of related orders.
Example. Chordates such as rats, dogs, bats, dolphins, camel, rhinoceros, kangaroo and
monkeys belong to the Mammalia class as they have a characterisetic hairy exoskeleton,
mammary (milk) glands, external ear, etc.
6. Phylum. It includes all organisms belonging to different classes having a few common
characters.
Example. All animals which have a notochord present in the embryo belong to the phylum
Chordata.
7. Kingdom. It includes all organisms who share a set of distinguishing common characters.
Example. Plant kingdom, Animal kingdom, etc.