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LIFE ATLAS 3DALL LIFE. CONNECTED.
See it in the 3D treeAll groups

Three truths

Timed
Began about 1.8 billion years ago · the last 43% of life's story
Named
≈1.7 million named living species · 99% of all named
Weighed
At least ≈464 Gt C · 84% or more of all life's carbon
Some members are not measured (no figure in Bar-On et al. 2018).

Eukaryotes · single-celled groups · domain

Complex cells (eukaryotes)

Eukaryota

Living · roughly 1.7 million described species

The date or placement of this group is still debated.

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Cells with a nucleus and internal compartments. Taught as the third domain, they arose from within the archaea, and their mitochondria came from an engulfed bacterium. All animals, plants and fungi are eukaryotes.

Cells with a nucleus. Every animal, plant and fungus is built from them.

Key characteristics

  • DNA kept inside a nucleus
  • Mitochondria descended from an alphaproteobacterium
  • Includes single cells and large many-celled organisms
Branched off
About 2.2 billion years ago (approximate)
Parent lineage
Heimdall and complex-cell line

Child lineages

Classification

  1. First common ancestor (LUCA)
  2. › Archaea
  3. › Asgard archaea
  4. › Heimdall and complex-cell line
  5. › Complex cells (eukaryotes)

Sources