Any living being, to be classified as such, must perform all vital functions or, at least, be capable of doing so. If not, we cannot classify it as such. Therefore, in this article on our site, we will tell you what a vital function is and what are the vital functions of animals
Resolve your doubts below and discover examples and important details, keep reading!
What are the vital functions of living things?
First, we must define what the vital functions of a living being are. In biology, vital functions are those processes carried out by living beings in order to survive and leave offspring These functions are, nutrition function, relationship function or interaction and reproduction function. All animals carry out these functions, although each one has its peculiarities, however they all have the same purpose, to live and reproduce.
Nutrition function
In the nutrition function, animals get matter and energy to be able to grow and maintain themselves. Being heterotrophic beings, animals need other living beings, whether animals or plants, to obtain organic matter and energy. But this function in animals does not end here. It begins with the digestion and assimilation of nutrients, however, once they are absorbed they pass into the circulatory system, carrying food to all the organs of the body and its cells.
These will perform cellular respiration, converting nutrients into energy. Everything that the cells no longer need returns to the circulatory system and, from there, to the excretory system. This will elaborate the urine that must be expelled from the body together with the feces (non-absorbable organic matter that leaves the digestive system).
Therefore, we can say that the function of nutrition has several stages: food intake, digestion, cellular respiration and excretion. In addition, the animals' own respiration, which is carried out through the lungs or gills, is also necessary to carry out the function of nutrition.
Relationship or interaction function
All animals must interact with the environment or with other living beings, of their species or any other. If this does not happen, if an animal is not aware of the environment in which it lives and does not respond to the stimuli and changes that may occur, it will not be able to survive.
In the same way, you must relate to yourself and detect the changes that occur within you. Therefore, the changes or stimuli that an animal experiences can be external or internal:
- External: Changes that occur outside the body. There are all kinds of them, from sounds or smells to visualizing a predator trying to hunt it or the heat in certain animals that, depending on the hours of daylight and the temperature, will go into heat or not.
- Internal: are the changes or stimuli that come from inside the animal. For example, feeling cold, hot, hungry, sleepy, etc. Most of these stimuli are marked by the biological clock.
Play function
All functions are equally important for the survival of an animal, but the function of reproduction has the quality of being the only one that allows the continuity of a speciesand that the genes of an individual perpetuate once that individual has died. There are two types of reproduction, sexual and asexual. There are species that only reproduce sexually and others that can do so asexually.
- Sexual reproduction: the presence of two sexual cells is necessary, one male and one female. Almost all animal species have this type of reproduction, so a female and a male or two hermaphrodite individuals (as with snails) are needed to perform this function.
- Asexual reproduction: it does not require two individuals with different sexes, a single animal produces genetically identical offspring.
In the animal kingdom we find several types of asexual reproduction:
- Budding: An adult animal produces a budding that grows into another independent individual. Sea sponges and some jellyfish have this type of reproduction.
- Fragmentation: A part of the original animal is cut off, separates and grows independently, creating a new being. Starfish are a good example.
- Parthenogenesis: As a result of an unfertilized female germ cell and under certain circumstances, an embryo develops that produces an animal identical to its mother. Some insects (ants or bees), fish and reptiles carry out parthenogenesis. The offspring are exclusively female, as there is no male germ cell involved.
