Question

Why is morphology important in biology?

Answer 1

Morphology:

1. Morphology provides us with the basis for the understanding of function, taxonomy, heredity, ecology, development, and other branches of biology, therefore giving us a platform to study other branches.
2. Morphology forms its foundation or the building blocks for various topics to be studied, which helps us to explore various fields of biology and to gain deep knowledge about various topics.
3. Humans have always been keen on studying and classifying organisms since the dawn of civilization.
4. These classifications were made to use organisms for their use.
5. The earliest classification was done by studying the morphological characters.

Importance of morphology:

1. The earliest classification was done by Aristotle, who used simple morphological characters to classify plants and animals.
2. By studying morphology, they classified plants into herbs, shrubs, and trees.
3. Aristotle divided animals into two groups, the ones that had red blood and the ones that did not have red blood.
4. This classification was based on gross morphological characters like habit , colour , number, and shape of leaves.
5. In the artificial classification system given by Linnaeus, only vegetative characters or the androecium structure were taken into consideration.
6. But this classification was discarded since it separated the closely related species.
7. Therefore, this classification was replaced by other classifications like the natural classification system, the phylogenetic classification system, numerical taxonomy, chemotaxonomy, and cytotaxonomy.
8. Morphology is extremely useful for studying the effects of genetic mutation.
9. The genotype of an organism directly affects the phenotype of the organism.
10. The genetic effect, therefore, directs the morphology of the organism.