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Living things are organisms that display the key characteristics of life. These characteristics include the ability to grow, reproduce, take in and use energy, excrete waste, respond to the environment, and possess an organized structure more complex than that of non-living things.
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Sometimes movement is also listed as a key characteristic of life, but many living things, such as trees, mushrooms, barnacles and coral, are incapable of movement during some or all of their life stages. Viruses, on the other hand, are a special case of an organism that is not a living thing. Although viruses are unable to reproduce or take in energy on their own, they are classified as organisms because they still contain genetic data and have evolutionary lineages. Furthermore, viruses are capable of reproducing within host cells and exist independently of their hosts, even if they are inanimate outside of them. Viruses are only considered living by scientists who consider the only key characteristic of life as the ability to replicate.
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What is the definition of "eukarya"?
A:Eukarya is a classification of living things that includes organisms such as the protists, fungi, plants and animals. Organisms are divided into three domains: Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya. Domain Eukarya consists of eukaryotic organisms, which are organisms that have cells containing membrane-bound structures called organelles.
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What are the six characteristics of life?
A:Living things have the following six characteristics that define life: they are made of cells, they use energy, they grow, they reproduce, they respond to their environment and they self-regulate. A seventh characteristic is often added to the list, which is that living things have biological organization.
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What are characteristics of the Phylum Echinodermata?
A:Distinguishing features of organisms in the Phylum Echinodermata include a lack of body segmentation, radial symmetry and life adaptations for marine environments. The Phylum Echinodermata includes more than 6,000 different species. Most organisms in this category take the form of starfish and have endoskeletons, which appear in humans, too, and give organisms the ability to move and grow.
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What characteristics are used to classify organisms?
A:Three of the major characteristics used to classify organisms are cell structure, mode of nutrition and cellularity. These characteristics help scientists determine how organisms are similar to each other as well as how they are different from each other.
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