MadSci Network: Science History
Query:

Re: When did the taxonomic kingdoms change, dividing monera?

Date: Mon Mar 4 07:13:33 2002
Posted By: Dave Williams, Science Department Chair, Valencia Community College
Area of science: Science History
ID: 1008090418.Sh
Message:

In the late 1970s, researchers discovered that some types of bacteria were 
fundamentally different from others. These bacteria had very different 
structure of their ribosomes and cell walls.

This initial work was done by Dr. Carl Woese and his colleagues at the 
University of Illinois. At first they called the new group the 
archaebacteria and divided all of living things into three domains (in 
contrast with the two-domain, five kingdom system then in use for teaching 
purposes), the Domain Archaebacteria, Domain Eubacteria, and Domain 
Eukaryota. Then, deciding that the term 'archaea' would best express the 
divergence between the newly discovered different bacteria and the other 
types, Woese changed his three domains to Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryota 
(Eukarya).

Here is a good URL to begin your study:
 http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/archaea/archaea.html




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