Encyclopedia
Outline of life forms
Overview of and topical guide to life forms
| Life timeline | ||||
| −4500 , , , , −4000 , , , , −3500 , , , , −3000 , , , , −2500 , , , , −2000 , , , , −1500 , , , , −1000 , , , , −500 , , , , 0 , | Water Single-celled life Photosynthesis Multicellular life Plants Arthropods Molluscs Flowers Dinosaurs Mammals Birds Primates Hadean Archean Proterozoic Phanerozoic |
| ||
| (million years ago) | ||||
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to life forms:
A life form (also spelled life-form or lifeform) is an entity that is living, such as plants (flora), animals (fauna), and fungi (funga). It is estimated that more than 99% of all species that ever existed on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are extinct.
Earth is the only celestial body known to harbor life forms. No form of extraterrestrial life has yet been discovered.
01Archaea
- Archaea , a domain of single-celled microrganisms, morphologically similar to bacteria, but they possess genes and several metabolic pathways that are more closely related to those of eukaryotes, notably the enzymes involved in transcription and translation. Many archaea are extremophiles, which means living in harsh environments, such as hot springs and salt lakes, but they have since been found in a broad range of habitats.
- Thermoproteota , a phylum of the Archaea kingdom
- Thermoprotei
- Sulfolobales , grow in terrestrial volcanic hot springs with optimum growth occurring
- Thermoprotei
- Euryarchaeota , phylum includes microorganisms
- Haloarchaea
- Halobacteriales , found in water saturated or nearly saturated with salt.
- Methanobacteria
- Methanococci
- Methanococcales aka Methanocaldococcus jannaschii , thermophilic methanogenic archaea, meaning that it thrives at high temperatures and produces methane
- Methanomicrobia
- Methanopyri
- Thermococci
- Thermoplasmata
- Thermoplasmatales , An order of aerobic, thermophilic archaea, in the kingdom
- Haloarchaea
- Halophiles , organisms that thrive in high salt concentrations
- Korarchaeota
- Korarchaeum cryptofilum , These archaea have only been found in high temperature hydrothermal environments, particularly hot springs
- Lokiarchaeota
- Methanogens
- Nanoarchaeota
- Nanoarchaeum equitans , This organism was discovered in 2002 and lives inside another archaea.
- Psychrophiles , (sigh-crow-files)
- Nitrososphaerota , a phylum of the Archaea proposed in 2008 after the genome of Cenarchaeum symbiosum
- thermophilic , (a thermophile is an organism)
- Thermoproteota , a phylum of the Archaea kingdom
02Bacteria
- Bacteria
- Gram positive no outer membrane
- Actinomycetota (high-G+C)
- Bacillota (low-G+C)
- Mycoplasmatota (no wall)
- Gram negative outer membrane present
- Aquificota
- Deinococcota
- Fibrobacterota/Chlorobiota/Bacteroidota (FCB group)
- Frateuria aurantia (a species of Proteobacteria)
- Fusobacteriota
- Gemmatimonadota
- Nitrospirota
- Planctomycetota/Verrucomicrobiota/Chlamydiota (PVC group)
- Pseudomonadota/Myxococcota/Bdellovibrionota/Campylobacterota
- Spirochaetota
- Synergistota
- Unknown / ungrouped
- Gram positive no outer membrane
03Eukaryote
- Eukaryote, organisms whose cells contain complex structures enclosed within membranes.
- Unikonta
- Opisthokonta
- Animal, multicellular eukaryotic organisms that form the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, reproduce sexually, and grow from a hollow sphere of cells, the blastula, during embryonic development.
- Subkingdom Parazoa
- Subkingdom Eumetazoa
- Radiata (unranked)
- Bilateria (unranked)
- Orthonectida
- Rhombozoa
- Acoelomorpha
- Chaetognatha
- Superphylum Deuterostomia
- Protostomia (unranked)
- Superphylum Ecdysozoa
- Superphylum Platyzoa
- Superphylum Lophotrochozoa
- Mesomycetozoa
- Fungi , any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes unicellular microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as multicellular fungi that produce familiar fruiting forms known as mushrooms.
- Blastocladiomycota
- Dikarya (inc. Deuteromycota)
- Subphyla incertae sedis
- Animal, multicellular eukaryotic organisms that form the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, reproduce sexually, and grow from a hollow sphere of cells, the blastula, during embryonic development.
- Amoebozoa
- Conosa
- Mycetozoa (slime-molds)
- Archamoebae
- Lobosa
- Protamoebae
- Conosa
- Opisthokonta
- Bikonta
- Apusozoa
- Excavata
- Archaeplastida (plants, broadly defined)
- Glaucophyta, glaucophytes
- Rhodophyceae, red algae
- Chloroplastida
- Chlorophyta, green algae (part)
- Ulvophyceae
- Trebouxiophyceae
- Chlorophyceae
- Chlorodendrales, green algae (part)
- Prasinophytae, green algae (part)
- Mesostigma
- Charophyta sensu lato, green algae (part) and land plants
- Streptophytina, stoneworts and land plants
- SAR supergroup
- Unikonta
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Outline of life forms”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.
