Archaea
One of the three major classes major classes of living organisms; previously known as archaebacteria. These organisms are commonly found living in extreme abiotic conditions such as deep sea vents and extremely salty, hypersaline waters. However, some species of archaea are also found living inside your gut, where they were first discovered in 1982[1]. They are often grouped as prokaryotes alongside bacteria under the organism classification system as they do not contain any membrane bound nuclei.
The archaea wasn't recognised as a seperate domain of life until right up to the late 1970s when Dr. Carl Woese and his colleagues at the University of Illinois were studying relationships among the prokaryotes using DNA sequences.[2]
References
- ↑ Purdy M. (2006). Gut microbes' partnership helps body extract energy from food, store it as fat. Available: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/7328.aspx. Last accessed 1st Dec
- ↑ Speer B.R., Waggoner B. (2001). Introduction to the Archaea Life's extremists. . .. Available: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/archaea/archaea.html. Last accessed 1st Dec 2011