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Life Characteristics
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| energy | needed to carry out daily functions |
| homeostasis | ability to maintain a stable internal environment despite the external conditions |
| autotroph | makes their own food |
| cell | basic unit of structure and function |
| adaptation | a feature of an organism that allows them to most likely survive and reproduce becoming better suited for their environment |
| reproduction | making more of own kind by passing on genetic information |
| asexual reproduction | requires 1 parents; produces identical offsprings |
| sexual reproduction | requires 2 parents to combine genetic information; produces genetically different offsprings |
| biology | study of life |
| DNA | made up of nucleotides and provides hereditary information |
| heterotroph | cannot make their own food; must take in food to meet energy needs |
| evolution | describes how life has changed over time; process of different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history or the earth |
| metabolism | sum of all chemical processes that occur in an organism in order to maintain life |
| growth | occurs from cell division--formation of 2 cells from an existing cell to increase in physical size |
| development | process by which an adult organism arises |
| reproduction | not essential for an individual organism; but essential for the continuation of species |
| organization | that structure or arrangement of related or connected items; cells, tissues, organs, organ systems describes |
| multicellular | containing many cells |
| response | an reaction to a stimulus |
| stimuli | a thing or event that causes a specific reaction |
| organism | an individual animal, plant, or single celled life form |
| species | a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding |
| cell division | the division of a cell into two daughter cells with the same genetic material |
| unicellular | characterized by the formation or presence of a single cell |
| multicellular | having or consisting of many cells |
| evolve | develop over successive generations as a result of natural selection |
| natural selection | the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring |
| differentiation | the normal process by which a less specialized cell undergoes maturation to become more distinct in form and function |
| ecology | the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings |