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The cell is the structural and functional unit of life. Smaller organisms, including prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea), consist of small single cells. Larger organisms, mainly eukaryotes, can consist of single cells or may be multicellular with more complex structure. Life is only known to exist on Earth but extraterrestrial life is thought ...
Common names (such as "red fox") are different across languages, whereas the scientific name does not change. In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same ...
A personal name, full name or prosoponym (from Ancient Greek prósōpon – person, and onoma –name) [1] is the set of names by which an individual person or animal is known. When taken together as a word-group , they all relate to that one individual. [ 2 ]
The term "organism" (from the Ancient Greek ὀργανισμός, derived from órganon, meaning ' instrument, implement, tool ', ' organ of sense ', or ' apprehension ') [2] [3] first appeared in the English language in the 1660s with the now-obsolete meaning of an organic structure or organization. [3]
Life arose from the Earth's first ocean, which formed some 3.8 billion years ago. [33] Since then, water continues to be the most abundant molecule in every organism. Water is important to life because it is an effective solvent, capable of dissolving solutes such as sodium and chloride ions or other small molecules to form an aqueous solution.
Animals have several characteristics that set them apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular. [14] Unlike plants and algae, which produce their own nutrients, [15] animals are heterotrophic, [16] [17] feeding on organic material and digesting it internally. [18] With very few exceptions, animals respire aerobically.
In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized by the nomenclature codes. An immediately higher rank, superorder, is sometimes added directly above order, with suborder directly beneath order. An order can also be defined as a group of related families.
For example, a molecule can be viewed as a grouping of elements, and an atom can be further divided into subatomic particles (these levels are outside the scope of biological organisation). Each level can also be broken down into its own hierarchy, and specific types of these biological objects can have their own hierarchical scheme.