Archaea

Single celled prokaryotic organisms of the domain Archaea, a lineage distinct from both Bacteria and Eukaryota despite superficially resembling bacteria, with distinctive cell membrane chemistry and, in many species, an ability to thrive in extreme environments such as near boiling hydrothermal vents, highly saline water or strongly acidic conditions. Covers the archaeal species catalogued in this atlas, identified by their own sourced description rather than by name. Excludes cyanobacteria and every other bacterial lineage, which belong in Bacteria or, for the photosynthetic blue-green algae among them, in the separate Cyanobacteria subcategory.