Classifying and Exploring Life

Characteristics of Life
Key Concept
• What characteristics do all
What do you think? Read the two statements below and decide living things share?
whether you agree or disagree with them. Place an A in the Before column
if you agree with the statement or a D if you disagree. After you’ve read
this lesson, reread the statements to see if you have changed your mind.
Before Statement After
1. All living things move.

2. The Sun provides energy for almost all

organisms on Earth.

3TUDY#OACH

Make Flash Cards Write

Characteristics of Life each boldface word on one
Your classroom is full of nonliving things and living side of a flash card. Write the
things. Desks, books, and lights are nonliving things. Your definition on the other side.
classmates, teacher, and plants are living things. What makes Use the cards to quiz
people and plants different from desks and lights? yourself.
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

People and plants, like all living things, have all the
characteristics of life. All living things are organized. They
grow and develop. All living things reproduce. They respond
to their environment. All living things maintain certain
internal conditions and use energy.
Nonliving things do not have all these characteristics.
Books might be organized into chapters. Lights might use
energy. But only those things that have all the characteristics
of life are living. Things that have all the characteristics of life are
called organisms. Reading Check

Organization 1. Identify How do living

things differ from nonliving
Your school has organization. The classrooms are for things?
learning and the gym is for sports. Living things are also
organized. Their organization involves cells. A cell is the
smallest unit of life. An organism might be made of just one
cell or of many cells. All organisms have structures with
specific functions, or jobs.

Reading Essentials Classifying and Exploring Life 1


Make a half-book and use it
to organize your notes on
the characteristics of living
things.
Characteristics
of Life
2. Apply You are a
multicellular organism. Name
one function that groups of
your cells carry out.
Stage 2: Fertilized frog eggs
are hatched into tadpoles.
Stage 1: Amphibian eggs are
laid and fertilized in water.
Visual Check
3. Identify the
characteristics of life that
you see in the figure.
2 Classifying and Exploring Life
Unicellular Organisms Living things that are made of only one cell
are called unicellular organisms. A unicellular organism has
structures with specialized functions. Some structures control
cell activities. Some take in nutrients. Other structures
enable the organism to move.
Multicellular Organisms Living things that are made of two or
more cells are called multicellular organisms. Some multicellular
organisms only have a few cells, but others have trillions of
cells. The cells of a multicellular organism usually do not all
do the same things. Instead, groups of cells have specialized
functions. These functions might include digestion or
movement.
Growth and Development
Think about the tadpole in the figure below. The tadpole
does not look like the frog it will become. The tadpole will
lose its tail and grow legs. Like all organisms, the tadpole
will grow and develop.
Stage 4: The adult
frog can live on land.
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Stage 3: Tadpoles begin to grow
into adults.
Reading Essentials
 How do organisms grow? When an organism grows, it
increases in size. A unicellular organism grows as its one cell
gets bigger. A multicellular organism grows when more cells
are produced.
How do organisms develop? The changes in an organism
during its lifetime are called development. A multicellular
organism develops as cells become specialized into different
cell types, such as skin and muscle cells. Some organisms
have amazing developmental changes over their lifetimes.
An example is a tadpole developing into a frog. Reading Check

Reproduction 4. Explain What is

development?
Reproduction is the process by which one organism
makes one or more new organisms. Organisms must
reproduce, or they will die out. Not all organisms reproduce,
such as family pets. But if a type of organism is going to
survive, some organisms of that type must reproduce.
Organisms reproduce in many ways. Some unicellular
organisms divide and become two new organisms. Each new
organism is just like the original cell. Some organisms must
have a mate to reproduce. Other organisms can reproduce
without a mate. Organisms produce different numbers of
offspring. Humans usually produce only one or two
offspring at a time. Other organisms, such as frogs, can
produce hundreds of offspring at one time.

Responses to Stimuli
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Organisms live in environments that change all the time.

These changes are called stimuli (STIHM yuh li). One change
is called a stimulus. All organisms respond to stimuli.
Reading Check
Internal Stimuli 5. Name two internal
Internal stimuli are changes inside an organism. They stimuli.
include hunger, thirst, and pain. If you feel hungry and look
for food, you are responding to an internal stimulus—hunger.
The feeling of thirst that causes you to look for water is
another internal stimulus.

External Stimuli
External stimuli are changes outside an organism. They
are usually changes in the environment that the organism 6. Contrast How do
external stimuli differ from
lives in. Light and temperature are examples of external
internal stimuli?
stimuli.

Reading Essentials Classifying and Exploring Life 3


7. Apply What word
explains why you go to the
bathroom more when you
drink a lot of water?
Reading Check
8. Explain Why is
maintaining homeostasis
important to organisms?
9. Generalize What
conditions might be too
harsh for an organism to
maintain homeostasis?
4 Classifying and Exploring Life
Light Many organisms respond to changes in light. Many
plants will grow toward light. You respond to light, too. If
you spend time in sunlight, your skin’s response might be to
darken, turn red, or freckle.
Temperature How does your body respond to changes in
temperature? Like many animals, your body responds by
increasing or decreasing the amount of blood flow to your
skin. If the temperature gets warmer, your blood vessels
respond by widening. Then more blood can flow to your
skin. You feel cooler.
Homeostasis
All organisms are able to maintain some internal
conditions. Homeostasis (hoh mee oh STAY sus) is an organism’s
ability to maintain steady internal conditions when outside conditions
change. Have you ever noticed that if you drink more water
than usual, you have to go to the bathroom more often than
you usually do? Your body is keeping your internal
conditions steady.
The Importance of Homeostasis
Cells need certain conditions to function the way they
should. Homeostasis makes sure cells can function. If cells
cannot function the way they should, an organism might
get sick or die.
Methods of Regulation
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Humans cannot survive if their body temperature
changes more than a few degrees from 37°C. When your
outside environment becomes too hot or too cold, your
body responds. It sweats, shivers, or changes the flow of
blood to maintain the body temperature of 37°C.
Both unicellular and multicellular organisms have ways to
maintain homeostasis. Some unicellular organisms have
a structure called a contractile vacuole (kun TRAK tul · VA
kyuh wohl). It collects and pumps extra water out of the cell.
There is a limit to the amount of change that can occur
inside an organism. For example, you could live for only a
few hours in very cold water. Your body could not maintain
steady internal conditions, or homeostasis, in this
environment. Your cells could not function.
Reading Essentials
 Energy
All organisms use energy. Digesting food, thinking,
Key Concept Check
reading, and sleeping use energy. Cells use energy to
transport substances, make new cells, and perform chemical 10. State What
characteristics do all living
reactions. All of the characteristics of life use energy.
things share?
Energy’s Origin Where does this energy come from? The
energy that most organisms use originally came to Earth
from the Sun, as shown below. The energy goes from one
organism to another. Energy in the cactus comes from the
Sun. The squirrel gets energy from the cactus that it eats.
The coyote gets energy from eating the squirrel.
Visual Check
11. Interpret Diagrams
From which food sources
does the badger get energy?

California myotis bat

Mountain lion
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Northern harrier hawk

Pronghorn
Badger Prickly pear
cactus
Ants

Big sagebrush
Desert
paintbrush
Coyote

Longnose Sagebrush lizard

snake

Golden-mantled squirrel

Reading Essentials Classifying and Exploring Life 5


chart below you will learn how each characteristic depends
on energy from the Sun.
Visual Check
12. Apply In the chart,
add another example for
each characteristic of life.
6 Classifying and Exploring Life
Energy for Life There are six characteristics of life. From the
Characteristics of Life
Characteristic Definition Example
Organization Living things have struc- a leopard running
tures with their own
functions or jobs. In
living things with more
than one cell, groups
of cells work together.
These living things have
a higher level of organi-
zation than living things
with only one cell do.
Growth and Living things might a tadpole changing
Development grow by increasing cell into a frog
size. They also might
grow by making more
cells. Living things
develop when cells get
specialized functions.
Reproduction Living things make a mother duck and
more living things by her ducklings
reproducing.
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Response to Stimuli Living things respond a plant leaning
to changes in their toward the sunlight
internal and external coming in a nearby
environments. window
Homeostasis Living things keep their a girl drinking water
internal environment after exercising
stable.
Use of Energy Living things use energy a squirrel eating a nut
for everything they do.
They get their energy
by making, eating, or
absorbing food.
Reading Essentials
 Mini Glossary
cell: the smallest unit of life multicellular: describes a living thing that is made of two or
more cells
homeostasis (hoh mee oh STAY sus): an organism’s
ability to maintain steady internal conditions when outside organism: a thing that has all the characteristics of life
conditions change
unicellular: describes a living thing that is made of only one cell

1. Review the terms and their definitions in the Mini Glossary. Write one or two sentences
to explain the difference between multicellular and unicellular organisms.

2. Fill in the table below to identify the six characteristics all living things share. Then add
an example for each characteristic from your life or the life of someone you know.

Characteristic of Life Personal Example

Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

3. How did making flash cards help you learn the important terms in the lesson?

What do you think

Reread the statements at the beginning of the Connect ED
lesson. Fill in the After column with an A if you Log on to ConnectED.mcgraw-hill.com
agree with the statement or a D if you disagree. and access your textbook to find this END OF
Did you change your mind? lesson’s resources. LESSON

Reading Essentials Classifying and Exploring Life 7