Archaea: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	archaeobacteria • archaeobacterium • archaeon • Archaea • archaebacterium • archaean • archaebacteria

Photos

Diagram of the tree of life based on the three-domain system, showing Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryota branching into four kingdoms: Plants, Animals, Fungi, and Protista, with illustrations of representative organisms for each group.

bacterial cell wall; peptidoglycan

Structural formula diagram of a glycerolphospholipid molecule, showing a glycerol backbone connected to a phosphate group and two long fatty acid chains labeled R1 and R2.

Steam rises above a hot spring outflow at Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone, with vivid orange and yellow microbial mats created by archaea covering the rocks.

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Topics

Euryarchaeota Korarchaeota Nanoarchaeota Picrophilus Ignicoccus Pyrodictium Halobacterium Crenarchaeota Thaumarchaeota Pyrolobus fumarii Bacteria plant fungus Animal Biology virus taxonomy protist endangered species plankton

Key People

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Carl Woese

American microbiologist

Mushrooms growing in forest. (vegetable; fungus; mushroom; macrofungi; epigeous)

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