The difference between plants and animals is not qualitative but quantitative. That is, it is expressed in the fact that certain structural features of certain organisms prevail. It is impossible to talk about their exclusive property of plants or animals.
Body structure
In the structure of the body, there are similarities and differences between animals and plants. What do they consist of? There are similarities between plant and animal cells. Lower plants and animals are composed of simple cells. However, they are often mobile. The similarities and differences between plant and animal cells require detailed consideration. We offer to delve into this issue.
Cell structure
The fact that there is a similarity between them is the result of a common origin of life. Both animal and plant cells have the following properties: they are alive, divide, grow, and metabolism occurs in them. The cells of both organisms have cytoplasm, nucleus, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, ribosomes.
As for the differences, they appeared as a result of different developmental paths, differences in nutrition, as well as the ability of animals to move independently, unlike plants. The latter have a cell wall, it consists of cellulose. It is not observed in animals. The function of the cell wall is to provide additional rigidity to plants and also to protect these organisms from water loss. Animals do not have a vacuole, but plants do. Chloroplasts are found exclusively in representatives of the plant kingdom. They are formed from inorganic organic substances, while energy absorption occurs. Animals feed on ready-made organic substances. They get them from food.
Development of animals and plants
Multicellular animals have an important feature. It consists in the fact that the body of these organisms is equipped with many cavities. They can be considered as the result of the fact that the covers were screwed inside the body of the animal. Most of these cavities are formed in this way. Sometimes they appear as a result of the splitting of tissues that form the animal's body. The development of the animal, therefore, can be reduced to the appearance of a series of folds, as well as bends inside the body. As for multicellular plants, in this sense they are devoid of cavities. If they have vessels, they are formed by perforation and fusion of rows of cells. However, the development of plants is reduced to the fact that they form protrusions outside the dense rudiment. This leads to the appearance of various appendages of the body, such asroots, leaves, etc.
Mobility
Similarities and differences between animals and plants are also observed in mobility. Animals are more mobile. Because of this, most of their cells are bare.
In sedentary plants, as we have already said, they are dressed in a dense shell. It is made up of cellulose (fiber). Irritability and mobility are not exclusive properties of animals. However, these features still reach their highest development. Nevertheless, not only unicellular, but also multicellular plants are mobile. Between unicellular plants and animals, or the embryonic stages of multicellular organisms, there is a similarity even in the way they use the methods of movement. Both are characterized by those that are carried out by non-permanent processes, otherwise called pseudopodia. This is called amoeboid movement. The similarity between plants and animals is that both can move using harnesses.
They can also do this by expelling matter from their body. These secretions allow the body to move in the right direction, opposite to the direction of the outflow of the substance. This property is possessed, in particular, by diatoms and gregarines. Multicellular higher plants turn their leaves towards the light in a certain way. Some of them stack them overnight. In this case, we can talk about the phenomena of the so-called sleep of plants. Some species are able to respond with movements to touch,concussion and other irritations.
These similarities between animals and plants are very interesting. However, many others are no less curious. We invite you to learn about them.
Isolation of muscle and nervous tissue
The next similarity and difference between animals and plants is associated with muscle and nervous tissue. Charles Darwin showed that the tips of the roots and stems of all plants rotate. However, only in multicellular animals there is isolation as a separate tissue of contractile muscle, which performs the function of irritability, as well as isolation of special sensory organs that serve to perceive various stimuli. But even among multicellular animals there are species that do not have separate nervous and muscular tissue, as well as sensory organs. These are, for example, some sponges.
Plant nutrition method
In nutrition, there are also similarities and differences between animals and plants. However, there is still more certainty here. It is believed that the main difference between plants and animals comes down precisely to the type of their food. Plants use chlorophyll (a green pigment) to form organic matter from oxygen, carbon and hydrogen, which they find in water and air. This is how 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 s alts, the plant also builds protein substances. Thus, these organisms are able to find food everywhere. In the life of plants, movement cannot play such a big role as in animals.
The way animals eat
Theseorganisms can exist only at the expense of organic compounds presented in finished form. They get them either from plants or from other animals, that is, ultimately from plants.
An animal must be able to get its own food. This is where his great mobility comes from. The plant forms organic compounds, while the animal destroys them. It burns these compounds in its body. As a result of this process, decay products are released in the form of urine and carbon dioxide. The animal all the time releases carbonic acid from the atmosphere back into the atmosphere. During its lifetime, it releases nitrogen through urination, and after death - during decomposition. The plant takes carbonic acid from the atmosphere. Nitrogenous bacteria carry out the transfer of nitrogen into the soil. From there, it is again consumed by plants.
Features of breathing
The similarities and differences between animals and plants also apply to breathing. With regard to that which is accompanied by the release of carbon dioxide and the absorption of oxygen, we can say that it is equally characteristic of both plants and animals. However, in the latter, this process is carried out much more energetically.
In plants, such breathing is noticeable only when the process of nutrition, opposite to this process, is not performed. Nutrition is the absorption of carbon dioxide, in which part of the oxygen is released into the atmosphere. It may not be performed, for example, when seeds germinate or in the dark.
Becausethe combustion process in animals is more energetic, the temperature rise in them is more noticeable and stronger than in plants. Thus, respiration in plants still exists, however, the main role of these organisms in the cycle of substances is 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 into the atmosphere (also partially with the help of bacteria - during decay), and absorb oxygen.
Food: exceptions to the rule
Often there is a similarity between plants and animals in how they feed. For example, mushrooms that do not contain chlorophyll use ready-made organic substances as food. And some flagella and bacteria can create organic matter, while they are devoid 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 that contain chlorophyll produce grains in the light that are similar in their properties to starch grains. This means that they eat in the same way as plants. And in the dark, their nutrition occurs saprophytically, that is, it is carried out by the entire surface of the body due to decaying substances.
Atypical chemical composition of elements
The similarity of plants and animals is also observed in the chemical composition of the elements that make up their bodies. Active chlorophyll, however, is characteristic only of plants. In some cases, it can be found in the body of higher animals. However, at the same time, 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 lack chlorophyll. On the other hand, Euglena, which has active chlorophyll, and other forms like it, have almost as much right to be assigned to the animal kingdom as to the vegetable kingdom. To date, the resemblance to chlorophyll of the green pigment present in the wings of orthopteran insects has not been proven. This pigment, in any case, does not function in them as chlorophyll.
Similar substances
The similarity of plants and animals is also manifested in similar substances present in their bodies. The first is characterized by the presence of fiber. However, the shell that envelops the bodies of a number of marine animals consists of tunicin. This substance is similar to fiber. For plants, as you know, such a substance as starch is characteristic. However, in the life of animals, its isomer (glycogen) plays an equally important role. And in myxomycetes, or slimy fungi, instead of starch, there is just glycogen.
Conclusion
All of the above leads us to the conclusion that the differences between plants and animals are rather arbitrary. It can also be concluded that both of them originate from a certain common source, that is, from such forms that can rightfully be attributed to both plants and animals. Theseforms are partly preserved on our planet.
