Topic 1.3 · Core
Animals and Plants
Animals and plants belong to different kingdoms, and several major characteristics tell them apart reliably — none of which is habitat or the ability to move around.
| Feature | Animals | Plants |
|---|---|---|
| Number of cells | Multicellular | Multicellular |
| Nuclei | Cells contain nuclei | Cells contain nuclei |
| Cell wall | Absent | Cellulose cell wall present |
| Chloroplasts | Absent | Present in photosynthetic cells |
| Nutrition | Obtain organic nutrients from other organisms | Produce organic nutrients by photosynthesis |
| Whole-body movement | Many animals can move from place to place | Whole organism normally remains fixed, although parts can move |
Notice that cells and nuclei are shared between the two kingdoms — it’s the cell wall, the chloroplasts and how nutrients are obtained that actually separate them. And even chloroplasts need care: not every plant cell contains one. Root cells don’t normally photosynthesise, so they usually lack chloroplasts entirely, even though the organism as a whole is unmistakably a plant. That’s the general rule worth remembering here — classification has to consider the features of the whole organism, not just whichever single cell or feature happens to be in front of you.
Once you can place an organism into the animal or plant kingdom, the next step is usually to narrow it further — into one of the vertebrate groups or arthropod groups on the animal side, or, for Supplement candidates, into ferns or flowering plants on the plant side.