The study of the structure and form of plants and animals is known as morphology. The word “morphology” originated from the Ancient Greek words morph, which means “form,” and lógos, which means “word, study, research.”
Morphology plays an essential role in taxonomy because morphological characteristics unique to a given species are utilised to identify it. Identifying animal and plant species already existing in a region and may be altering in population due to environmental changes has grown in importance as scientists focus more on ecology.
Table of Contents
- Morphology Meaning
- Morphology Definition
- Categories of Morphology
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Morphology Meaning
Morphology studies the sizes, shapes, and structures of plants, animals, and microbes, as well as the interactions between their parts. Although “anatomy” sometimes refers to the study of biological structure, it typically focuses on both, microscopic and large structural features. However, the two phrases are primarily equivalent in everyday usage.
Morphology comprises the shape, structure, colour, pattern, and size of the exterior parts, known as external morphology (or eidonomy), and the shape and structure of the internal components, such as the bones and organs, known as internal morphology (or anatomy). In contrast, physiology mainly focuses on function.
Principles of Morphological Classification
Most taxa are morphologically distinct from one another. Closely related species of plants and animals can be distinguished from one another using colour, proportion and size. There are some exceptions to the general rule that closely related taxa differ less than those more distantly related.
Homology and homoplasy are evaluated as part of the relationships between traits and features within species. The presence of homology between traits indicates that they have a common ancestry. As an alternative, homoplasy depicts traits that can resemble one another but evolve separately through convergent or parallel evolution.
Morphology Definition
Morphology is the biological study of the form and organisation of living things. The branch of biology called morphology examines how organisms are built, including their specific structural traits.
Morphology is defined as a branch of biology that studies the external and internal structures of living things.
It investigates the forms, shapes, and interactions of bacteria, animals, and plants. In medicine, morphology is a life science field of study that focuses on the structure and elements of an organism.
Categories of Morphology
There are different categories of morphology:
- Tissue Morphology
- Organ Morphology
- Cellular Morphology
- The Whole Organism
Tissue Morphology
Different morphological functions can exist in tissues. Long, twisted bundles are formed by skeletal muscle cells. Lung tissue composed of epithelial cells has grape-like cell sacs that effectively exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. Walking and running cause stress to the cartilage.
Organ Morphology
Similar patterns of structure and function can be found in organ morphology. There are four chambers in the human heart. The two lower chambers, the ventricles, have thicker, more muscular walls than the two higher chambers, the atria. Due to the requirement to pump blood to the enormous portions of the body, the walls of the ventricles are thick.
Cellular Morphology
Cells come in various shapes and sizes. Walls produced by epithelial cells prevent objects from moving freely from one side to the other. Squamous denotes a broad body, cuboidal denotes a cube, and columnar denotes a rectangle. While fat-storing cells are large and spherical, nerve cells are thin and long.
The Whole Organism
The level of the whole organism is the highest in morphology. The two fundamental anatomical planes in animals are bilateral symmetry (like a lobster) and radial symmetry (like a starfish). The fin shape for swimming and limb shape for sprinting is another example of the diverse morphology of organisms.
Conclusion
Because it helps analyse an individual’s outward traits, such as size, form, and structure, the study of morphology is essential in biology. Morphology also helps us identify the evolutionary connections that exist between different organisms.
The study of morphology includes the morphology of all individual cells, tissues, and organs of a living thing and the morphology of plants and animals.
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