Diversity in the Living World

Diversity in the Living World

From a current estimation, approximately 1.7 million species have been scientifically named and classified. These include nearly 1.2 million animals and over 0.5 million species of plants.

Amongst animals, insects form the largest group, i.e., over 10,25,000 species. It is estimated that majority of species diversity is confined to tropical rain forests and huge diversity exist in under water reef formations in tropical oceans.

Existing living species are the outcome of about 3.5 billion years of evolutionary process on this earth. Nearly 15,000 new organisms are discovered every year.

A clearer understanding of this huge variety of organisms can be studied by dividing these into smaller groups or sub-groups (categories) and each group or sub-group comprising of organisms with more or less similar characters.

Method of placing organisms into groups or sub-groups depending upon extent of similarities and differences is called classification.

The division of organisms into different groups follows certain rules, that is why the term called taxonomy is used for classification of organisms following certain rules or principles.

Diversity in the Living World 

Diversity in the world can be experienced everywhere on the earth. Each different kind of plant, animal, or organism that you see represents a species. The number of species that are known and described ranges from 1.71.7 to 1.81.8 million, which is referred to as biodiversity. Every individual is unique with respect to structure, body functions, genetic make-up, etc

Living organisms inhabiting different habitats have different structural organs or functions developed according to the conditions of the habitat. The warm and humid regions of the earth have diverse organisms and thus are known as the region of mega biodiversity.

Terminology utilized as a part of classification includes Nomenclature, Classification, Taxonomy and Systematics.

The process of naming an organism is known as nomenclature. A principle and criterion were given for naming the organisms, by scientists known as International Code for Botanical nomenclature (ICBN). For animals, International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. This helps scientists from all over the world to interact with each other using the same name.

Each name consists of two parts the first part is the generic name and the second part is the name of the species. This is known as Binomial Nomenclature. This was given by a scientist known as Carolus Linnaeus. 

Examples: Mangifera Indica (Mango); Homo sapiens (Man)

In this case, Mangifera and Homo are the generic names; indica and sapiens are specific epithets.

Rules of Nomenclature:

• Each biological name has two words-The principal word speaks about the genus and the second speaks to the specific epithet.
• The expressions of the name ought to be independently underlined when manually written and ought to be in italics when printed.
• The generic name ought to begin with a capital letter and the specific epithet ought to begin with a little letter.
• The names ought to be either Latin or Latinized.

Classification: It is the process of assigning creatures to particular groups or classes taking into account some defined characters. These classes are called Taxa (sing. taxon)

Taxonomy: It is the investigation of identification, nomenclature and arrangement of life forms taking into account outer and inside the structure with cell structure, advancement process and biological data.

 systematics: It is the investigation of life forms with reference to identification, nomenclature, arrangement and evolutionary correspondence.

Diversity in the living world

The biological variety and variability of life on Earth are referred to as biodiversity. Looking around, one will see a wide range of living organisms, including potted plants, insects, birds, pets, and other animals and plants. Other species are invisible to the naked sight but are all around us. A species is represented by each different type of plant, animal, or organism you see. Between 1.7 and 1.8 million species have been identified and described. This refers to the diversity of species on the planet or the quantity and varieties of creatures that exist.

There are millions of plants and animals throughout the world that are known by their regional names. These regional names might differ from one location to the next, even within a country. When referring to organisms, such names can cause confusion. As confuse necessary to standardize the naming of living entities so that they are known by the same name all over the world. This is referred to as nomenclature.

This naming or nomenclature is only achievable if the organism is correctly characterized and we know to which organism the term refers. This is calledidentification.

Scientists have developed processes to assign a scientific name to each known organism in ordering the process. Scientific names for plants are determined by agreed-upon principles and criteria outlined in the International Code for Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN). Taxonomists have developed the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) for animals.  Each creature has just one name thanks to the scientific names. Any organism's description should allow anyone (from all over the world) to come up with the same name. They also check to see if the name has been used for any other organism.

To give known creatures scientific names, biologists use broadly accepted rules. Each name is made up of two parts: a generic name and a specific epithet. Binomial nomenclature is a system for naming organismsconsisting of two parts. Carolus Linnaeus devised a naming system that is used by biologists all around the world. He is also known as the Father of Taxomy. This two-name approach was proven to be convenient.Mangiferaindica is the scientific name for the mango where, Mangifera denotes the genus, while indica denotes a specific species or epithet. The following are the universal rules of nomenclature:

1. Biological names are usually written in italics and written in Latin. Regardless of their origin, they are Latinized or derived from Latin.

2. In a biological name, the first component identifies the genus, whereas the second component denotes the specific epithet.

3. In handwriting, both words in a biological name are underlined or typed in italics to reflect their Latin origin.

4. The genus name begins with a capital letter, but the particular epithet begins with a tiny letter. 

The author's name occurs after the specific epithet, i.e., the after the zoological name, and is shortened, e.g., Mangiferaindica Linn. It denotes that Linnaeus was the first to describe this species.

Classification is the procedure of grouping things into useful categories based on plainly observable characteristics. Plants and animals, as well as dogs, cats, and insects, are easily identifiable. These phrases link certain characteristics to the organisms in that group. When we talk about mammals,' we're talking about animals with external ears and body hair. As a result, terminology like "Dogs," "Cats," "Mammals," "Wheat," "Rice," "Plants," and "Animals," among others, are useful categories for studying creatures. Taxa is the scientific word for these classifications. A taxon can denote a variety of categories at various levels. Plants are classified as a taxon. 'Wheat' is a taxon as well. 'Animals,' 'Mammals,' and 'Dogs,' for example, are all taxa. As a result, the terms 'animals,"mammals,' and 'dogs' all refer to taxa at various levels.

As a result, all living species can be divided into different taxa based on their properties. Taxonomy is the term for this classifying procedure. The external and internal structure of organisms, as well as cell structure, development process, and ecological information, are essential and form the basis of modern taxonomic investigations.  As a result, the fundamental stages of taxonomy are characterization, identification, categorization, and nomenclature. Humans, fora long, have been learning more about different types of organisms, particularly concerning their own Hence, the early classifications were based on the diverse utilities of organisms.

Humans have long been fascinated not only by diverse types of species and their diversity but also by the links that exist between them. The term "systematics" was coined to describe this field of study. The name "systematics" comes from the Latin word "systema," which means "an orderly arrangement of organisms." The title of Linnaeus' publication was SystemaNaturae. Identification, naming, and classification was later added to the scope of systematics. Systematics is the study of organisms' evolutionary relationships.