Domain (biology)

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The various levels of the scientific classification system. Species Genus Family Order Class Phylum Kingdom Domain Life

The hierarchy of biological classification's major eight taxonomic ranks. Life is divided into domains, which are subdivided into further groups. Intermediate minor rankings are not shown.

In biological taxonomy, a domain (also superregnum, superkingdom, or empire) is the highest taxonomic rank of organisms, higher than a kingdom. According to the three-domain system of Carl Woese, introduced in 1990, the Tree of Life consists of the following three domains: Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya. The arrangement of taxa reflects the fundamental evolutionary differences in the genomes. There are some alternative classifications of life:

As these groupings depend primarily on the analysis of genetic sequence data and cladistics, additional proposed arrangements are to be expected.

See also

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