Chapter 1: Characteristics of Life and Biological Organization

Flashcards covering the characteristics of life, levels of biological organization, energy transfer, reproduction, homeostasis, evolution, and taxonomy based on the introductory biology lecture transcript.

What are the six characteristics shared by all living things?

Living things are organized; require an input of energy and materials; reproduce, grow, and develop; respond to stimuli; are homeostatic; and adapt to their environment.

What is the lowest level of biological organization at which the characteristics of life apply?

The cellular level.

In biological organization, what is created when two or more types of tissues are put together?

An organ.

How is a population defined in biological terms?

A group of the same species in the same place at the same time.

What specific North American river otter population example is given to illustrate a narrow population?

The North American river otter population found in the Spoon River Basin in Fulton County, Illinois.

What is a biological community?

Populations in the same area interacting with each other.

What components make up an ecosystem?

All the interacting populations in a region along with the non-living physical and chemical environment.

What is the biosphere?

The zone of air, land, and water at the surface of Earth that supports life.

What is the definition of energy provided in the lecture?

The capacity to do work.

What is the correct biological definition of metabolism?

All the chemical reactions taking place in a cell.

What is considered the ultimate source of energy for nearly all life?

Sunlight (solar energy).

What happens to energy whenever it is transferred from one form to another in an ecosystem?

Some energy is lost as heat.

What does the theory of biogenesis state?

Life comes only from preexisting life.

Which scientist tested and proved the theory of biogenesis using an experiment with exposed and covered meat?

Louis Pasteur.

How do single-cell organisms reproduce most of the time?

Asexually by dividing, which creates identical cloned copies without exchanging genetic information.

What form of asexual reproduction occurs in certain animal species where males are rare or non-existent?

Parthenogenesis.

What two factors characterize biological growth?

An increase in the size of cells just before they divide and an increase in the number of cells.

How is development defined in biological organisms?

All the changes that take place between the point of conception and the time of death.

What is the difference between a stimulus and a response?

A stimulus is any internal or external change an organism can detect, while a response is any change in the organism caused by detecting that stimulus.

What does homeostasis mean in living organisms?

Maintaining all processes within a stable internal environment or a normal range.

What is natural selection?

The process where nature or the environment determines which traits are beneficial and which are not.

How is evolution defined in the lecture?

A process by which the characteristics or frequency of traits in a population or species change over time.

What common ancestors do all organisms share, and how far back do they date?

Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), which date back about $3.5$ to $3.8$ billion years.

What is the estimated age of the Earth mentioned in the lecture?

About $4.6$ billion years of age.

What is taxonomy?

A discipline within biology that is the science of identifying and classifying organisms into groups called taxons.

What are the taxonomic categories from most general to most specific?

Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Specific epithet (Species).

What two parts make up an organism's binomial scientific name?

The genus and the specific epithet.

What mnemonic device is provided in the transcript to remember the order of taxonomic groups?

"Dear king Philip came over for a great sex" (Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species).