If you start off by imagining a plant and an animal as a blob we can go from there!

Plants make their own food from light, water, carbon dioxide and mineral salts.

Animals have to eat complex food from plants and animals.

The Animal

It has to find its food so it needs senses.

It has to move to get to its food so it needs limbs.

It has to eat and break down the food so it needs a digestive system.

It needs a nervous system to coordinate the senses and control the limbs.

Because it is moving it uses lots of energy and requires lungs and a heart and blood system.

Because there are waste molecules in the food it takes in it has to excrete them.

Hence the animal is complex and has lots of crucial systems that make it vulnerable.

The Plant

It doesn’t have to move because all its necessary materials are all around it.

It develops flat projects to increase it’s surface area to absorb light and carbon dioxide (Leaves)

It develops projects to go down into the soil to absorb water and mineral salts (Roots)

It develops tubes to carry the water and food around its body

It sits there and feeds.

Reproduction is a problem because it can’t move so they get insects and the wind to do all the hard work for them.

A plant’s cells are 200 times more complex than an animals but it’s body is much simpler. Therefore it is not prone to damage. It is less vulnerable. It does not have lots of essential, delicate systems.

It is conscious.

The difference between a plant and animal is due to the way they eat. Plants are the highest forms of animals. They are much more complex than us.