Posts

Showing posts with the label Interesting information

Our most recent blogs

Maesilea crenata

Image
 Marsilea crenata is a species of fern found in Southeast Asia. It is an aquatic plant looking like a four leaf clover. Leaves floating in deep water or erect in shallow water or on land. Leaflets glaucous, sporocarp ellipsoid, on stalks attached to base of petioles.

Maesilea crenata

Image
 Marsilea crenata is a species of fern found in Southeast Asia. It is an aquatic plant looking like a four leaf clover. Leaves floating in deep water or erect in shallow water or on land. Leaflets glaucous, sporocarp ellipsoid, on stalks attached to base of petioles.

Dinoflagellates

 Dinoflagellates These organisms are mostly marine and photosynthetic. They appear yellow, green, brown, blue or red depending on the main pigments present in their cells. The cell wall has stiff cellulose plates on the outer surface. Most of them have two flagella; one lies longitudinally and the other transversely in a furrow between the wall plates. Very often, red dinoflagellates (Example: Gonyaulax) undergo such rapid multiplication that they make the sea appear red (red tides). Toxins released by such large numbers may even kill other marine animals such as fishes.

About kingdom Protista

 KINGDOM PROTISTA All single-celled eukaryotes are placed under Protista, but the boundaries of this kingdom are not well defined. What may be ‘a photosynthetic protistan’ to one biologist may be ‘a plant’ to another. In this book we include Chrysophytes, Dinoflagellates, Euglenoids, Slime moulds and Protozoans under Protista. Members of Protista are primarily aquatic. This kingdom forms a link with the others dealing with plants, animals and fungi. Being eukaryotes, the protistan cell body contains a well defined nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles. Some have flagella or cilia. Protists reproduce asexually and sexually by a process involving cell fusion and zygote formation.

Archaeobacteria

 Archaebacteria These bacteria are special since they live in some of the most harsh habitats such as extreme salty areas (halophiles), hot springs (thermoacidophiles) and marshy areas (methanogens). Archaebacteria differ from other bacteria in having a different cell wall structure and this feature is responsible for their survival in extreme conditions. Methanogens are present in the gutbof several ruminant animals such as cows and buffaloes and they are responsible for the production of methane (biogas) from the dung of these animals.

How Phylums were formed ?

 R.H. Whittaker (1969) proposed a Five Kingdom Classification. The kingdoms defined by him were named Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia. The main criteria for classification used by him include cell structure, body organisation, mode of nutrition, reproduction and phylogenetic relationships. Table 2.1 gives a comparative account of different characteristics of the five kingdoms.

Biological classification part 1

 Since the dawn of civilisation, there have been many attempts to classify living organisms. It was done instinctively not using criteria that were scientific but borne out of a need to use organisms for our own use – for food, shelter and clothing. Aristotle was the earliest to attempt a more scientific basis for classification. He used simple morphological characters to classify plants into trees, shrubs and herbs. He also divided animals into two groups, those which had red blood and those that did not. In Linnaeus' time a Two Kingdom system of classification with Plantae and Animalia kingdoms was developed that included all plants and animals respectively.

Family

 Family The next category, Family, has a group of related genera with still less number of similarities as compared to genus and species. Families are characterised on the basis of both vegetative and reproductive features of plant species. Among plants for example, three different genera Solanum, Petunia and Datura are placed in

Genus

 Genus Genus comprises a group of related species which has more characters in common in comparison to species of other genera. We can say that genera are aggregates of closely related species.

Taxonomic Categories

  Species Taxonomic studies consider a group of individual organisms with fundamental similarities as a species. One should be able to distinguish one species from the other closely related species based on the distinctmorphological differences. Let us consider

Ltchenberg figures

 A Lichtenberg figure (German Lichtenberg-Figuren), or Lichtenberg dust figure, is a branching electric discharge that sometimes appears on the surface or in the interior of insulating materials. ... Lichtenberg figures are natural phenomena which exhibit fractal properties.

How the word "systematics was derived ?

 The word systematics is derived from the Latin word ‘systema’ which means systematic arrangement of organisms. Linnaeus used Systema Naturae as the title of his publication. The scope of systematics was later enlarged to include identification, nomenclature and classification. Systematics takes into account evolutionary relationships between organisms.

Taxononomic hierarchy

 Classification is not a single step process but involves hierarchy of steps in which each step represents a rank or category. Since the category is a part of overall taxonomic arrangement, it is called the taxonomic category and all categories together constitute the taxonomic hierarchy. Each category, referred to as a unit of classification, in fact, represents a rank and is commonly termed as taxon

What is Systematics ?

 Human beings were, since long, not only interested in knowing moreabout different kinds of organisms and their diversities, but also the relationships among them. This branch of study was referred to as systematics.

Binomial nomenclature

 The system of providing a name with two components is binomial nomenclature

Information about hepatitis

 Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

Bad Breath

The concerns of bad breath may be divided into genuine and non-genuine cases. Of those who have genuine bad breath, about 85% of cases come from inside the mouth.  The remaining cases are believed to be due to disorders in the  nose ,  sinuses ,  throat ,  lungs ,  esophagus , or  stomach .

Causes of Sinusitis

Sinusitis can be caused by  infection ,  allergies ,  air pollution , or structural problems in the nose.Most cases are caused by a  viral infection . Recurrent episodes are more likely in persons with  asthma ,  cystic fibrosis , and  poor immune function .

The living world

Perhaps, the most obvious and technically complicated feature of all living organisms is this ability to sense their surroundings or environment and respond to these environmental stimuli which could be physical, chemical or biological. We sense our environment through our sense organs.

Popular posts from this blog

Hepatitis in detail

Information about Parrots

More about bacteria