Difference and similarity of plants and animals

The difference between plants and animals is not qualitative, but quantitative. That is, it is expressed in the fact that certain features of the structure of certain organisms predominate. It is impossible to talk about their exclusive property to plants or animals.

Body structure

In the structure of the body there is a similarity and difference between animals and plants. What are they? There are similarities between plant cells and animals. Lower plants and animals consist of simple cells. In this case, they are often mobile. Similarities and differences in plant and animal cells require detailed consideration. We propose to delve into this issue.

Cellular structure

The fact that there is a similarity between them is the result of the common origin of life. Both animals and plant cells have the following properties: they are alive, divide, grow, metabolism occurs in them. In the cells of both these organisms there is cytoplasm, nucleus, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, ribosomes.

As for the differences, they appeared as a result of different ways of development, differences in nutrition, and the appearance of the possibility for animals to move independently, in contrast to plants. The latter has a cell wall, it consists of cellulose. In animals, it is not observed. The function of the cell wall is that it imparts additional rigidity to plants, and also protects these organisms from water loss. Animals do not have vacuoles, but plants have them. Chloroplasts are found exclusively in representatives of the vegetable kingdom. In them, organic substances are formed from inorganic substances, while energy is absorbed. Animals eat the finished organic substances. They get them with food.

Development of animals and plants

Multicellular animals have an important feature. It consists in the fact that the body of these organisms is provided with a multitude of cavities. They can be considered as a result of the fact that the covers were screwed inside the animal's body. These cavities are mostly formed in this way. Sometimes they appear as a result of the cleavage of tissues that form the body of the animal. The development of the animal, thus, can be reduced to the appearance of a number of folds, as well as bends in the body. As for multicellular plants, in this sense they are devoid of cavities. If they have vessels, they are formed by perforating and merging rows of cells. However, the development of plants is reduced to the fact that they form protrusions outward of a dense rudiment. This leads to the appearance of various appendages of the organism, such as roots, leaves, etc.

Mobility

Similarity and difference between animals and plants are also observed in mobility. Animals have greater mobility. Because of this, their cells are mostly naked.

In slow-moving plants, as we have already said, they are dressed in a dense shell. It consists of cellulose (cellulose). Irritability and mobility are not exclusive properties of animals. However, these features still reach a higher level of development. Nevertheless, not only single-cell, but multicellular plants are mobile. There is a similarity between single-celled plants and animals or embryonic stages of multicellular organisms, even in the way they use the methods of movement. Both are peculiar to those which are carried out by unstable processes, otherwise called pseudopodia. This is called the amoeboid movement. The similarity between plants and animals is that both can move using harnesses.

They can also do this with the release of matter from their bodies. These secretions allow the body to move in the right direction, opposite to the direction of the outflow of matter. This property is, in particular, diatoms and gregarians. Multicellular higher plants turn leaves to light in a certain way. Some of them put them up for the night. In this case, we can talk about the phenomena of so-called plant sleep. Some species are able to respond with movements to touch, shaking and other irritations.

Very interesting are these features of the similarity of animals and plants. However, many others are no less curious. We suggest you learn about them.

Separation of muscular and neural tissue

The following similarity and difference between animals and plants is associated with the muscular and neural tissue. Charles Darwin showed that the tips of the roots and stems of all plants make a rotational movement. However, only in multicellular animals there is a segregation as a separate tissue of a contractile muscle that performs the function of irritability, as well as the isolation of special sensory organs that serve to perceive various stimuli. But among the multicellular animals there are species that do not have isolated neural and muscular tissues, as well as sensory organs. This, for example, is some sponges.

Method of plant nutrition

In the diet there is also a similarity and difference between animals and plants. However, there are still more certainties here. It is believed that the main difference between plants and animals is reduced to the type of their food. Plants with the help of chlorophyll (green pigment) form an organic matter from oxygen, carbon and hydrogen, which they find in water and in air. Thus, fiber, starch and other substances that do not contain nitrogen are created. And by adding nitrogen, found in the soil in the form of nitrogenous salts, the plant also builds protein substances. Thus, these organisms are able to find food everywhere. In the life of plants the movement can not play such a large role as in animals.

Method of feeding animals

These organisms can exist only at the expense of organic compounds, presented in ready form. They receive them either from plants or from other animals, that is, ultimately from plants.

The animal must be able to get food. It is from here that his great mobility flows. The plant forms organic compounds, the animal destroys them. It burns these compounds in its body. As a result of this process, decay products are isolated in the form of urine and carbon dioxide. The animal always releases carbonic acid from the atmosphere back into the atmosphere. In life, it releases nitrogen through urination, and after death - during decomposition. The plant takes carbonic acid from the atmosphere. Nitrogenic bacteria transfer nitrogen to the soil. From it, it is again consumed by plants.

Features of breathing

Similarities and differences between animals and plants also affect breathing. Concerning that which is accompanied by the release of carbon dioxide and the absorption of oxygen, it can be said that it is peculiar to both plants and animals alike. However, in the latter, this process is much more vigorous.

In plants, such a breath is noticeable only when the process of nutrition opposite to this process does not take place. Food is the absorption of carbon dioxide, in which part of the oxygen is released into the atmosphere. It may not occur, for example, with the germination of seeds or in the dark.

Since the burning process in animals is more vigorous, the temperature increase in them is more noticeable and stronger than in plants. Thus, breathing in plants still exists, however, the main role of these organisms in the circulation of substances consists in the absorption of carbon dioxide, the release of oxygen, and the consumption of nitrogen in the atmosphere (with the help of bacteria). Animals have the opposite role. They produce carbon dioxide and nitrogen (also partially with the help of bacteria - in rotting), and oxygen is absorbed.

Power: exceptions to the rules

Often there is a similarity of plants and animals in the way they eat. For example, chlorophyll-free fungi use already prepared organic substances for food. And some flagellates and bacteria can create organic matter, while they are deprived of chlorophyll. A number of insectivorous plants are able to capture and process animal tissues. Thus, the similarity of plants and animals is manifested. Some types of flagellates, which contain chlorophyll, produce light on the grain, similar in properties to starch. Hence, they eat in the same way as the plants. And in the dark, their food is saprophytic, that is, it is carried out by the entire surface of the body due to decomposing substances.

Atypical chemical composition of elements

The similarity of plants and animals is also observed in the chemical composition of the elements from which their bodies are composed. Actual chlorophyll, however, is peculiar only to plants. In some cases, it can be found in the body of higher animals. However, it does not belong to them, but to algae. Some of them live symbiotically in the body of animals. We already know that many plants are devoid of chlorophyll. On the other hand, Euglena, which has an active chlorophyll, and other forms similar to it, have almost the same right to be referred to the animal kingdom, as well as to the vegetable kingdom. To date, there is no evidence of a similarity with the chlorophyll of the green pigment found in the wings of orthopteran insects. This pigment, in any case, does not function in them as chlorophyll.

Similar substances

The similarity of plants and animals is also evident in similar substances present in their bodies. For the first is the presence of fiber. However, the shell, which envelops the bodies of a number of marine animals, consists of tunicin. This substance is similar to fiber. For plants, as is known, such a substance as starch is inherent. However, in the life of animals, its isomer (glycogen) plays the same important role. And at Mixomycetes, or mucous fungi, instead of starch there is just a glycogen.

Conclusion

All of the above leads us to the conclusion that the differences between plants and animals are rather conditional. It can be concluded that both of these originate from a common source, that is, from such forms that can be rightly assigned to both plants and animals. These forms are partly preserved on our planet.