Diversity in the living world

Diversity in the living world

  Diversity in the living world or biodiversity is the occurrence of variety of life forms differing in morphology, size colour , anatomy, habitats and habits. Each different kind of plant, animal or organisms represents a species. Currently there are some 1.7 – 1.8 million living organisms known to science. Out of these 1.25  million are some animals. The plants number about 0.5 million. The single group of insects, however, outnumber all the plants and other animals. The group contains about 1.025 million species. Every year about 15000 new organisms used to be discovered . The number has increased since the launching of projects like Global Biodiversity Information Facility and Species 2000. It is estimated that any number between 5 to 30 million species of living organisms are parents on earth. Most of the unknown occur In the dense tropical rain forests and underwater reefs. Tropical rain forests are less than 8 % of the total land. Their area is shrinking due to human exploitation. It is feared that if this exploitation is not stopped forthwith, many of species will become extinct forever before coming to light. Because of this Silent Valley rain forest of Kerala has been saved from submergence under proposed dam across river Kuntizha.

        The past organisms have also left their impressions or remains in the rocks. They are called fossils. The term microfossils is used for impressions or remains and remains of microorganisms as well as microscopic remains of lager organisms. It is believed that the extinct species may out-number the living ones by 50-100 times. With such a number of living and extinct organisms it is essential to have a proper universal system of nomenclature, identification and classification that can bring out their true relationships. They are all domains of system atics.

Systematics

    Systematics is a branch of Biology that with cataloguing plant, animals and other organisms into categories that can named, remembered, compared and studied. Study of only one organisms of a group provides sufficient information about the remaining members of that group. Scientists connected with the study of systematics are called systematists or  taxonomists. The terms  systematic, taxonomy and classification are often help as synonyms but technically they carry diffident meaning. Simpson, has defined systematic as the branch of biology that deals with the diversity of organisms at every level of their comparative morphology , cytology, embryology, fossil relatives, biochemical analysis and ecological relationships. The knowledge is  required by all biologists working in diffident fields. E. g., agriculture forestry ,  industry, ecology, medicines, genetics, physiology, etc. It also helps in developing evolutionary relationships, with or without the help of taxonomic studies of fossils.

      History. Vedic literature mentions some 740 plants and 250 animals. Chandyogya Upanishad has classified animals into Jivaja , Andaja  and Jangama. Plants were differentiated into vanaspati, vrksa, virudha  and osadhi. Animals were similarly categorised into kulacara, matsya, janghala, and guhadaya. Parasara divided angiosperms into dvimatruka and ekamatruka. Dvimatruka or dicots were jalikaparna while ekamatruka or monocots were maunlaparna.