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Body (biology)

life science Maturity 9-11 Next article →

A body is the physical material of a living thing. This term is used for organisms that exist in one part or as a whole. Some living things change as they grow. Slime molds are a good example of this. They start as single cells. They grow into many cells to make a body. This is called the multicellular stage.

Plants have a special way of building their bodies. They are modular, which means they grow in parts. These parts are made by things called meristems. A plant body usually has two main systems. It has a shoot system and a root system. The environment can change how a plant body develops.

Scientists use different names to study how bodies are built. Morphology is the study of bodies and their shapes. Anatomy is a part of morphology. It looks at the structure of a body. This is done at a level higher than tissue. Anatomy is close to histology. Histology is the study of tissues.

Other scientists look at even smaller parts. Cytology is the study of individual cells. It looks at how cells work and their structure. These cells build the tissues and organs of a big organism. Embryology is another part of morphology. Together, anatomy, histology, cytology, and embryology make up morphology. Physiology is the study of how a body works.

Human bodies have many specific parts. We have a head and a neck. We have a torso and two arms. We also have two legs. The groin area has parts that differ between males and females. When a person dies, their body is called a corpse or a cadaver. The dead bodies of insects or vertebrate animals are called carcasses.

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