For Many Years, Biologists Felt That the Highest Level of Classification

question 36

Essay

For many years, biologists felt that the highest level of classification of living organisms was the five kingdoms. Recently, some biologists have proposed that the hierarchical classification of organisms start with three domains, the Bacteria, the Archaea, and the Eucarya. Explain the reasoning behind this proposal and why the Bacteria and the Archaea should be in separate domains even though their members are all prokaryotes.