Characteristics of Living Things

Characteristics Of Living Things
When you look at the world around you, how do you categorise or group what you see?
One of the broadest groupings is 'living' and 'non-living'. This may sound simple, but it is
sometimes difficult to decide whether something is truly alive or not. So why would we say
earthworms are living?
All living things share life processes such as growth and reproduction. Most scientists use
seven life processes or characteristics to determine whether something is living or non-
living.
The table below describes seven characteristics of most living things and contains
references to earthworms to explain why we can definitely say that they are 'living'.
Life process Explanation Earthworms

Movement All living things move in some way. This may Earthworms use circular and longitudinal muscles to move through
be obvious, such as animals that are able to soil or along surfaces.
walk, or less obvious, such as plants that have
parts that move to track the movement of the
sun.
Respiration Respiration is a chemical reaction that happens The food that earthworms eat supplies their body with energy-rich
within cells to release energy from food. molecules such as glucose. On entering the cells of their body, these
molecules are broken down in a series of steps to release energy to be
used by the body, producing carbon dioxide and water as waste
products.
Sensitivity The ability to detect changes in the surrounding Earthworms have light-sensitive cells scattered in their outer skin.
environment. Their skin cells are also sensitive to touch and chemicals.
Growth All living things grow. Earthworms hatch from eggs and can grow up to a metre or more in
length! Some earthworms are also able to regrow small parts of their
body that have been lost or injured.
Reproduction The ability to reproduce and pass genetic Earthworms have both sperm and eggs within their bodies (they are
information onto their offspring. hermaphrodites) but they cannot self-fertilise and need to mate with
another individual. After mating, a cocoon containing the fertilised
eggs is deposited in the soil.
Excretion Getting rid of waste. Earthworms excrete waste from their anus – the last segment of their
body.
Nutrition The intake and use of nutrients. This occurs in Earthworm nutrition comes from a variety of sources, depending on
very different ways in different kinds of living their species. Food types include manure, compost, plant material,
things. fungi, microorganisms and decaying animals. They take in food
through their mouths.
Further classification
Based on the information above, we can confidently categorise earthworms as living things
as they carry out all seven life processes.
It is now possible to classify them further into a series of hierarchical categories: kingdom,
phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. Classifying living things into these
categories is an important way for scientists to show how living things are related to each
other. Most scientists classify living things into one of the following six kingdoms.
 Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms that don’t have a nuclear membrane.

 Protozoans are single-celled organisms that are generally much larger than
bacteria. They may be autotrophic or heterotrophic.
 Chromists are a diverse group of plant-like organisms and range from very small to
very large. They are found in almost all environments.
 Fungi are multicellular and rely on breaking down organic material as they are not
able to make their own food.
 Plants are multicellular and autotrophic – they use photosynthesis to produce food
using sunlight.
 Animals are multicellular. They are heterotrophic and rely on other organisms for
food.
Which kingdom do you think earthworms belong to?
Animal characteristics
What did you decide? Sometimes people are surprised to find out that earthworms are
actually animals – the same kingdom as humans, cats, dogs, dolphins and spiders! Just as
living things share a set of common characteristics, animals have key characteristics that
can help you to decide whether a living thing is an animal or not.
Key characteristics of animals include the following:
 They obtain energy by consuming other organisms (we say they are 'heterotrophic').
 They are able to physically move their bodies about at one or more stages of their
life cycle.
 Their bodies are made up of multiple cells.
 Sexual reproduction occurs - a sperm and an egg cell combine to produce an
embryo that grows into a juvenile animal.

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Characteristics Of Living Things

Life process Explanation Earthworms

 Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms that don’t have a nuclear membrane.

Which kingdom do you think earthworms belong to?

Key characteristics of animals include the following:

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