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Bacteria are prokaryotic microorganisms that can either have a bacilli, spirilli, or cocci shape and measure between 0.5-20 micrometers. They were one of the first living cells to evolve [9] and have spread to inhabit a variety of different habitats including hydrothermal vents, glacial rocks, and other organisms.
At long irregular intervals, Earth's biosphere suffers a catastrophic die-off, a mass extinction, [9] often comprising an accumulation of smaller extinction events over a relatively brief period. [10] The first known mass extinction was the Great Oxidation Event 2.4 billion years ago, which killed most of the planet's obligate anaerobes.
After the LECA, some 2 billion years ago, the eukaryotes diversified into a crown group, which gave rise to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Eukaryogenesis , the process which created the eukaryotic cell and lineage, is a milestone in the evolution of life, since eukaryotes include all complex cells and almost all multicellular organisms.
The history of life on Earth traces the processes by which living and extinct organisms evolved, from the earliest emergence of life to the present day. Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago (abbreviated as Ga, for gigaannum) and evidence suggests that life emerged prior to 3.7 Ga. [1] [2] [3] The similarities among all known present-day species indicate that they have diverged through the ...
As duplex DNA became the predominant form of the genetic material, the mechanism of genetic recovery evolved into the more complex process of meiotic recombination, found today in most species. It thus appears likely that sexual reproduction arose early in the evolution of cells and has had a continuous evolutionary history.
The three-domain system adds a level of classification (the domains) "above" the kingdoms present in the previously used five- or six-kingdom systems.This classification system recognizes the fundamental divide between the two prokaryotic groups, insofar as Archaea appear to be more closely related to eukaryotes than they are to other prokaryotes – bacteria-like organisms with no cell nucleus.
The word bacteria is the plural of the Neo-Latin bacterium, which is the romanisation of the Ancient Greek βακτήριον (baktḗrion), [6] the diminutive of βακτηρία (baktēría), meaning "staff, cane", [7] because the first ones to be discovered were rod-shaped. [8] [9]
Margulis did strongly promote and publish versions of this hypothesis until the end of her life. [ 5 ] One primary point in favor of the symbiotic hypothesis was that there are eukaryotes that use symbiotic spirochetes as their motility organelles (some parabasalids inside termite guts, such as Mixotricha and Trichonympha ).