Eukaryote

Eukaryota Temporal range: Statherian–Present 1650–0 Ma Pha. Proterozoic Archean Had.
Cryptista Viridiplantae Discoba Amoebozoa Rhizaria Alveolata Animalia Fungi
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
Subgroups
Diaphoretickes TSAR Haptista CAM clade (including plants) Provora[1] Hemimastigophora Jakobea Tsukubea Discicristata Euglenozoa Percolozoa Scotokaryotes Podiata (including fungi and animals) Metamonada Malawimonadida Ancyromonadida
Synonyms
Eucarya Woese et al. 1990[2] Eukarya Margulis 1996[3]

The eukaryotes (/juːˈkærioʊts, -əts/ yoo-KARR-ee-ohts, -⁠əts)^[4] constitute the domain of Eukaryota or Eukarya, organisms whose cells have a membrane-bound nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms are eukaryotes. They constitute a major group of life forms alongside the two groups of prokaryotes: the Bacteria and the Archaea. Eukaryotes represent a small minority of the number of organisms, but given their generally much larger size, their collective global biomass is much larger than that of prokaryotes.

The eukaryotes seemingly emerged within the Asgard archaea, and are closely related to the Heimdallarchaeia.^[5] This implies that there are only two domains of life, Bacteria and Archaea, with eukaryotes incorporated among the Archaea. Eukaryotes first emerged during the Paleoproterozoic, likely as flagellated cells. The leading evolutionary theory is they were created by symbiogenesis between an anaerobic Asgard archaean and an aerobic proteobacterium, which formed the mitochondria. A second episode of symbiogenesis with a cyanobacterium created the plants, with chloroplasts.

Eukaryotic cells contain membrane-bound organelles such as the nucleus, the endoplasmic reticulum, and the Golgi apparatus. Eukaryotes may be either unicellular or multicellular. In comparison, prokaryotes are typically unicellular. Unicellular eukaryotes are sometimes called protists. Eukaryotes can reproduce both asexually through mitosis and sexually through meiosis and gamete fusion (fertilization).