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1 The Nature and Variety of Living Organisms

This topic area establishes what life has in common and how the main organism groups differ. It provides the classification and organism-feature groundwork that later ecology, nutrition and genetics pages depend on.

Core Role

  • Establish the shared characteristics of living organisms.
  • Separate the main organism groups using reliable structural and nutritional features.
  • Provide the first classification vocabulary used again in ecology and inheritance contexts.

Topic Pages

  • 1a Characteristics of Living Organisms: The idea of life in this course is built from a shared set of processes. These characteristics are useful because they give one framework for comparing organisms that look very different on the surface. 1 learning objective.
  • 1b Variety of Living Organisms: Organisms are grouped here by their shared cell features, modes of nutrition and overall body plan. The important comparisons are between eukaryotes, prokaryotes and viruses, and between the main eukaryotic groups themselves. 3 learning objectives.