Domain

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 three domains: Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya. The arrangement of taxa reflects the fundamental differences in the genomes. There are some alternative classifications of life: As these groupings depend prim... more

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 three domains: Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya. The arrangement of taxa reflects the fundamental 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. None of the three systems currently include non-cellular life. less