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# Bacterium/Talk

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Bacteria were formerly classified in the kingdom Monera, but are now given their own domain.

As far as I know, Archaea are still counted as bacteria, the term being a structural rather than phylogenetic one; the domain is called Eubacteria on the tree of life and elsewhere. Also, isn't the five kingdom system still prevalent among biologists, despite its fairly clear inadequacies?

Viewing Bacteria as the super-domain over EuBacteria? and Archaebacteria is outmoded and has been superceded by the view that Archaea actually have much more in common with Eukaryota than had been thought. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/taxonomyhome.html for more information. Note also that the [tree of life] has shifted to the three domain view, although they do use the term Eubacteria. Note also that all of the alternative high level taxonomies presented on the tree of life site show Archaea as closer to Eukaryota than to Bacteria.

It is definitely true that most biology texts still have the five kingdom view and that many biologists who don't work in systematics will still reiterate when asked. If they review the current literature, most convert quickly to the three domain view (in my limited experience observing this process). -- TedDunning

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Last edited June 25, 2001 11:23 am (diff)
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