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The Eukaryote. Living things with cells that have a nucleus are eukaryotes. Pretty much everything alive that isn't a bacteria or an archaea is a eukaryote. This includes all the plants, animals, slime molds, protists, and the fungi (the verdict is still out on whether viruses arose from the same primordial soup as prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells or whether viruses are simplified descendants of cells that lost their cell-nature and stripped down to the basics.) At any rate, Eukaryotic life may have evolved from symbiotic colonies of prokaryotic life. This now seems likely. So, prokaryotic cells came first (they are simpler and more primitive), but from the geological record it seems that Eukaryotic cells are almost as ancient as the prokaryotic, emerging over 2.2 billion years ago.

Links about the Eukaryotes:
  1. Emmanuelle J. Javaux’s 2007 manuscript about early diversification among Eukaryotes is excellent, but a bit technical for general readers.
  2. A section from the Second Edition of Geoffrey M. Cooper's textbook on cells in which he describes the evolution of Eukaryotic cells.
  3. A description of the Eukaryotic cells from The Miller Museum.
  4. A 1998 article by Jeremy Mohn on the Endosymbiosis theory of how eukaryotic cells evolved out of colonies of prokaryotic cells living together as a single organism is well worth reading.
  5. The University of California at Berkeley describes the morphology of eukaryotic cells.
Articles of biology: terrestrial animals, trilobite, prokaryote, oxygen catastrophe, Metazoa, Ediacaran.
Articles of French history:Eiffel tower, Louvre, Versailles, Notre-Dame de Paris, Paris Opera house. Articles of Chinese history: oil well, abacus, compass, gunpowder, first dictionary, paper money, wheelbarrow.
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