Basis of Classification of Living Beings

Introduction

The Basis of the classification of living beings is the first topic when you start biology. This topic deals with the very first question that might arise in your head if you think of the most basic and the most crucial thing of biology, and the question is, what is life? Everyone is asking this question. But understand this, even if you try to answer it, you will soon realize that this question can never have a definite answer. Because one characteristic that we consider to define something living or no living might turn out to be entirely irrelevant for some other kind of living or non-living form. And thus, the eventual answer to this question is always vague and unclear. So how about if we change the question to, what are living beings? Easier right? We’ll get back to this question in a while, and let’s first understand the need to classify organisms into various strata in the first place? With the help of carbon dating of fossil evidence today, we know that life on earth began some 3.7 billion years ago. And surprisingly, even in all these years, millions of species are still unknown to humankind. Remember that even this knowledge that millions of species still need to be discovered comes only through classification.

Biological classification

Classifying living beings based on commonly shared characters and placing them in fixed categories is called the process of biological classification.

• Carolus Linnaeus has been crowned the “father of biological classification”
• The modern taxonomic way of classification is formed through amalgamating the works of Charles Darwin and Carolus Linnaeus

Classification of living beings is essential because, as you know, this world is a populated place. A particular animal in your locality might also be found in other localities of the world. Depending on the culture, language, and habitat, the animal might have a different name than your locality or country people might have assigned to that animal. To never arrive at a position like this, where there can be confusion between the same animals found in different areas, and for a clear picture of species, biological classification is performed. It is essential to classify all the species under some categories based on their similar traits with other living beings; one can identify the importance of that particular organism and know if that specific organism is at the risk of extinction or not. Classification helps to protect such living beings who are nearing extinction. Classification of living beings helps understand the process of evolution in a better way. Living beings are classified into seven different categories:

• Kingdom
• Phylum
• Classes
• Order
• Families
• Genres
• Species

Note: If you move from kingdom to species, the similarity among living beings in these categories increases. Always keep in mind while studying this chapter that the sequence of the classification as mentioned above is essential from an exam point of view.

Living beings

So now we are back with our first question, what is life? As we discussed earlier, the answer to this question is very vague and hence doesn’t have any definitive answer. So instead of this, the question should rather be, what are living beings? So, the scientific definition for living beings goes like, “an individual form of life, such as a bacterium, protist, fungus, plant or animal consisting of a singular cell or complex of cells in which the cell organelles or the organ work together to carry out the various process of life” are considered as living beings.

• Defining living beings accurately was a big dilemma for scientists for a long time because, if you see, for most living beings, life is about movement. They move and perform their everyday functions, be it a bacterium or an animal. But if you look at plants, they don’t move but are, of course, living. It was then thought that if a plant’s leaf were green, it would be considered alive, but again, some plants are active but have different leaves. What about them?
• Then after a lot of research and speculations, scientists, at last, concluded that the most accurate way to define a living being is by whether they reproduce or not

And therefore, living beings can be anything that performs the reproduction process. For example, birds, human beings, trees, animals, etc., are all living beings. Note: viruses are neither considered living or nonliving because they need a host to perform cellular functions. Without a host, they remain inactive like non-living beings. This is the reason why viruses are called borderline organisms.

Living beings Meaning

Living beings in Hindi are ‘Angdhari, Jeevdhari and Pranni.’ As mentioned earlier, living beings are those organisms that reproduce. Now, let’s look at some of the characteristics of living beings:

• Has cell or cells in their body
• Need energy in some form to survive
• Have the ability to reproduce
• Can grow
• Perform metabolic activities
• Respond to stimuli
• Can adapt to the surrounding environment
• Have the ability to respire
• Show movement of some form

All living beings

Classification of living beings was first started by the philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle classified animals based on their habitat, i.e., air, water, and land. Another significant milestone was achieved in the classification journey in the 1700s by Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish physicist and a botanist who published a book in which he classified plants and animals and grouped them based on their common physical traits and for the first time formed a two-part binomial taxonomy system. Carolus Linnaeus’ work was later combined with the creation of Darwin, and today the mixed results of these two scientists form the Basis of modern taxonomy.

Conclusion

The world is full of many different types of animals. Only by grouping and classifying can we record all of the species. Biologists and zoologists continue to locate, study and classify new animals. Meanwhile, various groups work hard to protect the current species that we do know.