Characteristics
of Living Things
All organisms have
common characteristics.
New Vocab:
 Biotic:
Living material, or material that
was once living
 Abiotic: Material that was not living.
What is Life?
 Organism
= a living thing
 All organisms share 8 common
characteristics
 A specimen must possess all 8
characteristics to be considered living
8 Characteristics of Life
1.
2.
3.
4.
Cells
Grow and
develop
Reproduce
Energy
5.
6.
7.
8.
DNA
Respond
Homeostasis
Evolve
Living Things are Made of
Cells
 Cells
– smallest unit of
life
 Unicellular – single
celled organism
 Multicellular – organism
made up of many cells
 Cells can be organized
into more complex
structures
Living Things Grow and
Develop
 To
Grow, organisms make more cells
 To Develop, their cells change shape and
function
Living Things Reproduce
to make more of their own kind
 Asexual
– makes
clones of one
parent
 Sexual
– Requires
sperm and egg
cells
Life uses Energy
 Autotrophs
– Make their own
food with energy from the sun
Heterotrophs – Get energy from
other organisms by the food
they eat
 The sun is the primary source of
energy for most life on Earth
Living Things Maintain
Homeostasis
A
condition of keeping a stable and
balanced internal environment
Like maintaining
body temperature
Or pH

Living Things Respond to
Stimuli
A stimulus is anything that causes a
response.
External stimulus
Internal stimulus
Life follows a genetic code:
DNA
 DNA
is inherited from parents
 A copy is found in every cell
 DNA is a set of instructions for
making proteins.
Living Things Evolve
 Over
many
generations, or
millions of years,
organisms have the
potential to change
as a population
Turtle