GENERAL BIOLOGY

THE OBJECTS OF BIOLOGY

Disusun Oleh :
M. Fajar Fathu Rhohman

13304241042

Inayatul Laili

13304241044

Gahar Ajeng Prawesti

13304241064

PROGRAM STUDI PENDIDIKAN BIOLOGI C

JURUSAN PENDIDIKAN BIOLOGI
FAKULTAS MATEMATIKA DAN ILMU PENGETAHUAN ALAM
UNIVERSITAS NEGERI YOGYAKARTA
2013

The Objects of Biology

CHARACTERISTICS OF BIOLOGY
The basic things of biology is about Biology comes from bios, meaning life and logos,
meaning science. Biology is the study of everything about living things. Biology has developed very
rapidly and can help people solve problems faced in everyday life.
Objects or the study of biology is a living thing. Living beings on this earth is vast and
diverse, so as to facilitate the study, experts categorize / classify into groups (kingdom / empire).
Biology as a science has certain traits. BSCS (Science Curriculum biological study) illustrates
the structure of biological science simply as a cover up of 3-dimensional objects, the level of
organization of life, a theme issue. Sebaga biological sciences have a certain object, the degree to
which objects are studied and the theme is the issue of a particular object. The 3-dimensional picture
up by BSCS biology scholarship are as follows:

The objects of the study subsequently growing in line with the progress of science and technology, so
that the study of each of the objects more complex or complicated. The study includes a variety of
themes, among others, according to the biological question of Biological Science Curriculum Study
(BSCS), 1996 is as follows:
Evolution: patterns and products of change
Interactions and interdependence
Maintenance of a dynamic equilibrium
Growth, development, and differentiation
Genetic continuity
Energy, matter, and organization
Science, technology, and society
THE ORGANIZATION OF LIFE
A HIERACY OF INCREASING COMPLEXITY
The complexity of life at three levels (Cunningham, 2003:31): cellular, organismal, and population.
2

The Objects of Biology

A. Cellular Level:
1.
Molecules. Atoms, the fundamental elements of matter, are joined together into complex
clusters called Molecules. DNA, which stores the hereditary information in all living
organism, is a complex biological molecule, called a macromolecule.
2.
Organelles. Complex biological molecules are assembled into tin compartments within cells
called organelles, within which cellular activities are organized. The nucleus is an organelle
within which the cells DNA is stored.
3.
Cells. Organelles and other elements are assembled in the membrane-bounded units we call
cells. Cell are the smallest level of organization that can be considered alive.
B. Organismal Level:
1.
Tissue. The most basic level is that of tissues, which are groups of similar cells that act as a
functional unit. Nerve tissue is one kind of tissue, composed of cell called neurons that are
specialized to carry electrical signals from one place to another in the body.
2.
Organs. Tissues, in turn, are grouped into organs, which are body structures composed of
several different tissues grouped together in a structural and functional unit.
3.
Organ system. At the third level of organization, organs are grouped into organ system. The
nervous system, for example, consists of sensory organs, the brain and spinal cord, and
neurons that convey signals to and from them.
C. Population Level:
1.
Population. The most basic of these is the population, which is a group of organisms of the
same species living in the same place. A flock of geese living together on a pond is a
population.
2.
Species. All the population of a particular kind of organism together form a species. Its
members similar in appearance and able to interbreed. All Canada geese, whether found in
Canada, Minnesota, or Missouri, are basically the same, members of the species Branta
canadenis .
3.
Community. At the higher tier of biological organization, a community consist of all the
populations of different species living together in one place. Geese, for example, may share
their pound whit ducks, fish, grasses, and many kind of insects. All interact in a single
pound community.
4.
Ecosystem. At the highest tier of biological organization, a biological community and the
soil and water within which it lives together constitute an ecological system, or ecosystem.
5.
Biomes. Biomes has a bigger zone than an ecosystems. Its characteristics is based on each
climate. The object of biome include almost the variety biomes in the world likes rainfall,
moisturize, temperature, and wind.
THE OBJECTS OF BIOLOGY
A. Monera
The smallest independently living things are prokaryotic organism that belong to the
kingdom monera.many monerans are single-celled organism that are so small. Each one
metabolizes food, produces wastes, grows, and reproduces.There are two major group of
monerans, the bacteria and the cyanophytes.All of the cyanophytes are autotrophic, contain
chlorophyll. The process of photosynthesis in cyanophites is similiara to that in eukariots. The
bacteria are heterotrophs that feed by secreting enzymes into their enviroment.
3

The Objects of Biology

Monerans do not reproduce sexually. They do not undergo meiosis, nor do they form
gametes that fuse to form a zygote. The process of conjugation.
B. Protist
Flosting near the surface of the seas are billions og tiny organisms called plankton. The
word plankton comes from a greek word meaning wanderer. Planktonic organism are not
attached anywhere.
a. Plant like protist
The protist are a diverse group. Some protist groups are primaily autotropic and are
classified as plant-like protist.
1. Phylum Euglenophyta
The Phylum Euglenophyta have choloplasts and are autotropic.ussualy bright green
chloroplasts are distributed throughout the cytoplasm. Euglenas move by means of
whiplike structure called flagella. Flagella are common in many eukoriotes.euglena does
not have a cell wall.Euglenas live in fresh water. The cytoplasm of their cells is always
more concentrated than fresh water. Autotroph
2. Phylum Pyrrophyta
The most pyrrophytes are dinoflagellates.The chloroplasts of dinoflagellates contain
chlorophyll. However, abundant red and yellow pigments. The nucleus of dinoflagellates
is unusual. Recal that in most eukaryotes, chromosomes are visible only during
mitosis.autotroph. Live in both fresh and salt water
3. Phylum Chrysophyta
Their characteristic gold or brown color comes from the predominance of pigmen
other than chlorophyll. Most of the 6500 spesies of chrysophytes are diatoms autotroph.
Live in both fresh and salt water
4. Phylum Chlorophyta
Chlorophyta is a division of green algae, informally called chlorophytes. The name
is used in two very different senses, so care is needed to determine the use by a particular
author. In older classification systems, it refers to a highly paraphyletic group of all the
green algae within the green plants (Viridiplantae) and thus includes about 7,000 species
of mostly aquatic photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. Like the land plants (bryophytes
and tracheophytes), green algae contain chlorophylls a and b and store food as starchin
their plastids.
5. Phylum Rhodophyta
These are called the red algae. They also are multicellular and marine-dwelling,
but are more typically found in tropical zones and deeper in the ocean. They also go
through alternation of generations, Many of these (such as the Nori used in sushi) are
used by humans as food, and are also good sources of iodine.
6. Phylum Phaeophyta
These organisms are commonly known as the brown algae. They are multicellular
and live in marine, temperate zone, costal areas. They all have a form of sexual
reproduction with alternation of generations. One member of this Division with which
you may be familiar is Kelp, which actually can be any of several species of seaweed in
the genera Fucus and/or Laminaria. Brown algae are used in many cultures as human
food, and are good sources of iodine. We need iodine for our thyroid glands, and if a
4

The Objects of Biology

person doesnt enough iodine in his/her diet (most commonly in inland areas where
iodine is not added to salt), the thyroid gland enlarges in an attempt to keep making
enough thyroid hormone (which doesnt do any good because what its lacking is the
iodine needed to make the hormone). This enlarged thyroid is called a goiter. Laminaria
also has an interesting gynecological use. If a woman is scheduled for some medical
procedure for which the doctor needs access to the inside of her uterus, often a day or so
beforehand, rolled-up, dried pieces of Laminaria are inserted into the opening of the
womans cervix. As the seaweed absorbs water from her body fluids, it gently and slowly
expands, gradually stretching the cervix. Thus, by the time her surgery is scheduled, her
cervix has been dilated slowly and gently rather than the doctor having to forcibly and
quickly (thus painfully) stretch the cervix open minutes beforehand.
7. Phylum Bacillariophyta
b. Animal-like protist
The animal-like protist are single-celled eukaryotes with no obvious relationship to
photosynthetic protists.
1. Phylum Mastigiphora / The Flagellates
The phylum Mastigophora contains the animal-like protists that move by flagella.A
few species live in fresh or salt water and some in bodies of other animals. One of the
best-known flagellates is trypanosoma.
2. Phylum Sarcodina / Rhyzopode
The phylum Sarcodina contains protists that move and take in food by pseudopods.
All sarcodines feed by phagocytosis. In phagocytosis, an organism surrounds its prey with
pseudopods, then forms a food vacuole.Probably the best-known sarcodine is Amoeba
proteus.Amoebas reproduce asexually by mitosis and cell division.
3. Phylum Ciliophora / The Ciliates
Protists in the phylum Ciliophora use cilia to move and capture food.The most
commonly studied ciliate is paramecium. This slipper-shaped ciliate lives in ponds. These
cilia function like the arm of a swimmer.Paramecia reproduce asexually by mitosis and
cell division.These organisms undergo a kind of sexual reproduction called conjugation.
Paramecia use their cilia to capture food.
4. Phylum Sporozoa
All members of the phylum Sporozoa are parasitic, absorb food from the fluids of
their host.The best-known sporozoans are those that cause malaria in humans. Malariacausing sporozoans belong to the genus Plasmodium. Plasmodium spores enter the blood
stream of a human through the blood to the liver, where they reproduce asexually.
c. Fungi-like protist
The fungi-like protist are single-celled eukaryotes which has mucus, wet, and gelatin-like
texture. Its also produce spore just like fungi
1. Phylum Myxomycetes
These organisms are called slime molds. They are fungus-like in their nutrition in
that they absorb nutrients from their environment. Their body structure is unusual in
that the nuclei undergo mitosis, but there is no cytokinesis--there are no individual cells
with one nucleus each. Rather, the body is a giant, multinucleate mass of cytoplasm.
Slime molds are mobile: they move by amoeboid movement, in other words, like a giant
5

The Objects of Biology

Amoeba with giant pseudopodia. They live in decayed wood and move around in
between the fibers, ingesting bacteria, etc. by phagocytosis. Slime molds are often
brightly-colored (yellow or orange).
2. Phylum Oomycetes
C. Fungi
Mushrooms are not known to grow on the beach itself. However, unusual species grow in
the beach ridge, living off of the dead roots of marram grass. Examples are dune brittlestem,
Melanoleuca cinereifolia and stinkhorn. You find lots of other mushrooms in dunes further away
from the coast which are otherwise very rare in other biotopes. Examples are collared earthstars,
the waxcap Hygrocybe acutoconica, butter waxcaps and morels. Since coastal regions take much
longer to freeze than inland, mushrooms are often found in the dunes practically year round.
Dune woods are renowned for their abundance of mushrooms.
Fungi are classified into three subkingdom.
a. Subkingdom Gymnomycota
You have probaly never noticed a slime mold. Slime mold live in moist, decaying leaves
or rotting logs. All slime molds have an amoebalike stage during their life cycle.
Thisamoebalike stage feeds by creeping over the forest floor and engulfing bacteria or
decaying matter by phagocytosis. The organism consists of independent single cells.
b. Subkingdom Dimastigomycota
Since many members og the subkingdom Dimastogomycotina are aquatic.
1. Phylum Zigomycetes
Phylum Zigomycetes are terrestrial saprophytes. A few live in water, and some are
parasites. The common bread mold, Rhizopus, is the best-known zygomycetes.
2. Phylum Ascomycetes
All members of the ascomycetes, have a saclike reproductive strucure. Like the other
true fungi, these organism have a mycelium made of hyphae with chitin walls.
3. Phylum Deuteromycetes : Imperfect Fungi
The Fungi imperfecti or imperfect fungi, also known as Deuteromycota, are fungi
which do not fit into the commonly established taxonomic classifications of fungi that
are based on biological species concepts or morphological characteristics of sexual
structures because their sexual form of reproduction has never been observed; hence the
name "imperfect fungi." Only their asexual form of reproduction is known, meaning that
this group of fungi produces their spores asexually.
4. Phylum Basidiomycetes
Basidiomycetes include mushrooms, shelf fungi, puffballs, rusts, and smuts. They are
dispersed by spores borne at the tips of basidia (giving rise to the name for the group).
Mushrooms are masses of interwoven hyphae growing up from the main mass of the
mycelium growing underground. The basidia develop on the undersides and release their
spores (four from each basidium) into the air.
A single mycelium may expand outward year after year as its hyphae grow into new
terrain. In some species, mushrooms are sent up once a year at the periphery producing a
circle known since medieval times as a "fairy ring".

D. Plantae
6

The Objects of Biology

The 250,000-380,000 currently-known plant species (2,7,8,11) , or members of the kingdom

Plantae, are organisms that live on every continent and in nearly every habitat on Earth (10).
Plants include some of the primarily water-dwelling organisms called green algae (specifically a
group known as the charophyte algae(12)), and the embryophytes or land plants which evolved
from green algae (1,12,14). A sometimes-used broader definition of plants also includes the rest
of the green algae as well as red algae and glaucophyte algae (9,14). The subset of plants called
land plants is divided into two main groups itself: nonvascular plants (those that lack specialized
systems allowing them to transport water and nutrients internally; these include mosses,
hornworts, and liverworts (5,7)); and vascular plants (those that do have vascular transport
systems; these include ferns, lycophytes, gymnosperms, and the highly diverse flowering plants
(14)). Plants have special cell walls around each of their cells built in large part out of a
carbohydrate called cellulose (7) that makes them especially strong and firm (6). Unlike most
other organisms, most plants produce their own food through a process called photosynthesis
(9), in which they soak up sunlight, usually with their leaves, and deploy this sunlight within a
complicated biochemical system to turn carbon dioxide combined with water into energy-rich
sugars (3,15). Through this process, plants have a crucial effect on the global climate and the
environmentthey remove carbon dioxide, a gas that contributes to global warming, from the
air (13), and release oxygen, which is essential for animals, fungi, protists, many bacteria, and
even plants themselves in order for them to extract energy from organic molecules (4,15). In
addition, plants provide food and shelter for many kinds of organisms, and humans rely on them
directly for grains, vegetables, fruits, wood, paper, clothing, and many medicines (8,11). In the
future, they may be useful as sources for new medical drugs (8), emerging cleaner, renewable
fuels, and other products (6). For all of these reasons and more, plant conservation is critically
important (2,8,11).
1. The Pteridophyta
The Pteridophyta Divsion contains ferns. Ferns are plants with leaves, roots, and stems;
but they do not have flowers like most plants. Ferns have special stems, called rhizomes,
which grow sideways at the surface or underground. Many leaves grow from rhizomes and
make fern colonies
2. The Bryophyta
This places the mosses as the third most diverse group of land plants, only after the
angiosperms and ferns.The green leafy shoots (gametophytes) retain some features of the
green algal ancestors (chlorophylls a and b, starch, sperm with two forward undulipodia), but
the needle-like shoots that produce the spores (sporophytes) display key innovations for the
life outside water, such as stomates, a simple strand of conductive cells [in an unbranched
sporophyte], and airborne spores produced in a single apical capsule (sporangium).
3. Spermatophyta seed plants

The Objects of Biology

Comprises the Angiospermae (or Magnoliophyta) and Gymnospermae (or

Gymnospermophyta). In general, the group is characterized by the marked development of
the sporophyte, with great differentiation of its parts (root, stem, leaves, flowers, etc.); by the
extreme reductionof the gametophyte;and by the development of seeds.
a. Gymnosperms
The gymnosperms the seeda develop on the surface or at the tip of anappendage.
Structures of gymnosperms may occur in cones or strobili. In gymnosperms,the ovule
doesnt increase much in size after fertization. Familiar examples include the pine,
hemlock, Ginkgo biloba.
b. Angiosperms
The angiosperms exceed all other vascular plants in range of diversity of the plant
body and habitat, and in their utility to humans. Examples of the reproductive organs of
angiosperms (flowers, fruits, and seed) used as food are even more abundant. Many
perennials are woody that is they have active cambium that add abundant secondary
xylem
The two groups of flowering plants differ inother respects as follow
- Dicotyledons
- Monocotyledons
E. Animalia
The Kingdom Animalia (=Metazoa) is one of a handful of lineages rooted far back in the
branching "tree" that represents the history of life on Earth. This lineage that is composed of
those organisms we know as "animals" represents one of the three major origins of
multicellularity (the other two large and diverse groups of multicellular organisms are the fungi
and the green plants).
It is difficult to list characteristics that apply to all animals, since various branches of the
animal tree have undergone a range of significant modifications. However, most animals obtain
energy from other organisms. They generally feed on them as predators (killing and eating a
prey item); parasites, including herbivores feeding on plants (feeding on their "prey" without
killing it, at least not immediately); or detritivores (ingesting tiny bits of decomposing organic
material such as fallen leaves). In contrast to animals, most plants make their own food, through
the extraordinary process of photosynthesis, using energy captured from the sun; most fungi
break down decaying organic material (without ingesting it) into its chemical constituents and
absorb released nutrients. Animal cells lack a rigid cell wall (some form of which is typical of
plants and most fungi) and their cell biology and physiology differ in a variety of ways from
other organisms.
1. Vertebrates
The most prominent characteristic of vertebrates is a rigid, jointed skeleton inside the body.
A. Mammals
All mammals share at least three characteristics not found in other animals: three
middle ear bones, hair, and the production of milk by modified sweat glands called
mammary glands.mammals have evolved to live in nearly all terrestrial and aquatic
habitats on Earth. Mammals inhabit every terrestrial biome, from deserts to tropical
rainforests to polar icecaps.
8

The Objects of Biology

B. Reptile
Living species of the class Reptilia are placed in four orders. The order Testudines
includes turtles, the order Squamata includes lizards and snakes, the order Crocodylia.
reptiles have neither fur nor feathers, but scales. While the process of copulation and egglaying differs slightly among reptiles, they share the ability to produce a large-yolked,
shelled egg.
C. Fish
Fishes are animals that live and swim in the water, are cold-blooded, breathe using
gills, have backbones, have a scaly skin, and have various fins instead of limbs.
Lampreys and hagfish are a group of jawless fishes at the base of the vertebrate tree
of life. Cartilaginous fishes are the chimeras, sharks, skates and rays.Ray-finned fishes
are the most diverse of the major groups of fishes.Lobe-finned fishes are a very special
group of bony fishes with limb-like fins.
D. Birds
Birds live in a wide range of environments, from tropical rainforests to the polar
regions,Birds are ovivaporousthey reproduce by laying eggs rather than giving birth to
live young.that have fixed wings, these birds have moveable wings powered by muscles.
Some birds, soaring birds like the albatross, can fly using fixed wings and air currents as
a source of power
E. Amphibians
For much of their lives, which may last a couple of months or several years
depending on the species, larval amphibians bear little resemblance to their adult
forms.Both amphibians and reptiles are derive heat from the environment, rather than
producing it internally, they are cold-blooded.
2. Invertebrates
Many invertebrates also live in habitats that people dont see very often, example under water
in oceans, streams, and ponds, in the soil, in the canopies of trees, or as parasites inside other
animals.The vast majority of animals are invertebrates, animals without backbones like bugs,
worms, snails, corals, sponges
A. Crustacean
They belong to the phylum Arthropoda, as do insects, arachnids, and many other
groups; all arthropods have hard exoskeletons or shells, segmented bodies, and jointed
limbs.Crustaceans live in all kinds of habitats.
B. Insects
Insects account for a great majority of the species of animals on earth. They are a
tremendously successful group. The general characteristics of uniramians, these include a
body composed of three tagmata, a head, thorax, and abodmen. Insects are dioecious and
fertilization is internal in most.
C. Molusk
They never settle for one function when an organ could serve two or six purposes at
once. A good example of this is the mantle, a membranous projection of a mollusk body
wall.Freshwater and marine mollusks have gills (called ctenidia) for respiration.
D. Echinodermata
Echinodermata is an entirely marine taxon, occurring throughout the worlds oceans
and includes sea stars, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, sea cucumbers, and sea
lilies. Characteristics though larvae are bilaterally symmetrical, hard endoskeleton.
9

The Objects of Biology

REFERENCES
Paidi. 2012. Buku Petunjuk Praktikum Biologi Umum. Yogyakarta : UNY Press.
Pujiyanto, Sri. 2008. Menjelajah Dunia Biologi 1. Solo : Platinum.
Cunningham, William P. 2003. Environmental Science; A Global Concern. Quebecor World
Versailles Inc.
Rotundo, McLaren. Health Biology. Canada: D.C Health and Company

www.eol.org
en.wikipedia.org
aslam02.wordpress.com
biology.clc.uc.edu

10

The Objects of Biology