What belongs to inanimate nature?.

However, they are subject to natural selection and carry their own genetic code, which is characteristic only of living organisms.

Coral reefs are rock-like in all respects, but are created by the simplest invertebrate coral polyps. This, however, does not make corals (and their colonies - reefs) living objects: polyps are living organisms, after the death of which a calcareous (sometimes organic) skeleton remains that forms a coral. Polyps that feed, reproduce, develop and die are living nature, while coral is lifeless.

In nature studies, children are asked what relates to objects of inanimate nature: the sun - yes, the tree - no, the Moon is an inanimate body, the GLONASS satellite is an artificial object, water - yes, a tree stump -... problems: he seems to be almost a tree, but at the same time he feeds, breathes and multiplies somehow completely imperceptibly (and when new shoots appear, he seems to be no longer a stump, but a tree again). A dead stump, dried up is a lifeless body, fresh is a crippled living tree. Mushrooms, although not plants, are also alive, flowers in a flowerbed are alive, in a vase they are dying, in a herbarium they are not alive.

As you can see, there are intermediate states of objects between living and inanimate matter: the functioning of the organism after death is no longer possible, but individual cells and tissues are still alive. But plant seeds exhibit all the properties of inanimate bodies: the metabolism in them is slowed down to the limit, they do not respond to stimuli, do not multiply (for example, in a bag in the refrigerator). Many plants look dead in winter. This is called the state of hidden life, and it differs from the dead in that under favorable conditions the organism comes to life.

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