Lifeform


 * ''"I just love scanning for lifeforms. Lifeforms... you tiny little lifeforms... you precious little lifeforms... where are you?"
 * - Data


 * "Our mission as Starfleet officers is to seek out new lifeforms so we can learn about one another."
 * - Miles O'Brien

A lifeform is simply any living entity or organism. The study of lifeforms is known as biology, and, when dealing with alien lifeforms, could be further sub-categorized into xenobiology and xenology.

Starship sensors and tricorders were primary instruments used in detecting or locating lifeforms, as they could identify or localize blood type, heart rate or metabolic setup.

A lifeform was not necessarily organic — which was to say carbon-based. Nevertheless, Federation scans for lifeforms often looked only for organic life. In at least one known case, this limited view of what constituted a lifeform had disastrous consequences for a Federation terraforming project. 

Starfleet lifeform classes and types

 * Classification R-3 lifeforms (Sheliak)
 * Class-5 lifeforms (Vhnori)


 * Order 480-G anthropoids (Taurus II natives)

Kingdoms

 * Monera
 * Protista
 * Fungi
 * Plantae
 * Animalia

Other types of life

 * Artificial
 * Biomimetic lifeform
 * Cybernetic
 * Silicon-based
 * Solanogen-based
 * Spaceborne
 * Viral
 * Xenon-based
 * Sporocystian